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RECORD 



OF 



ENGAGEMENTS 



WITH 



HOSTILE INDIANS 



WITHIN THE 



Military Division of the Missouri, 

from 1868 TO 1882, 

LIEUTENANT GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN 



C O M M A N D I N 




COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS. 



Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri, 
Chicago, Illinois, August 1st, 
1882. 



RECORD 



OF 



ENGAGEMENTS 



WITH 



HOSTILE INDIANS 



WITHIN THE 



Military Division of the Missouri, 

from 1868 to 1882, 

LIEUTENANT GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN 



COMMANDING. 



COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS. 




Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri, 
Chicago, Illinois, August 1st, 
1882. 




.4 



Introductory, 



The information contained in the following synopsis of engagements 
with hostile Indians, is compiled from official reports and returns. 
Whilst it was possible to ascertain the exact losses of the troops 
engaged, the figures relating to those of the Indians necessarily rep- 
resent the im^Hmum. Excepting in rare instances when troops were 
in superior force and succeeded in effecting a complete surprise, de- 
feat or capture of a body of Indians, the latter, according to their 
custom, bore off in the midst of the engagements, their dead and 
wounded, the number of whom could not, therefore, be ascertained ; 
so the seeming disparity between the reported numbers of their killed 
and of their wounded, is accounted for by this great difficulty in ascer- 
taining the extent of the latter. In many engagements, consequently, 
no mention is made of Indians wounded, although, doubtless, many really 
died from the effects of wounds received. Notably such was the case 
in the battle of the Little Big Horn, in Montana, in 1876, and it was 
only when the hostiles had finally surrendered, that interviews with the 
Indians resulted in their admitting a loss of about forty warriors killed. 
The boastful nature of the Indian, too, leads him to exalt his own deeds 
of prowess, but to conceal his losses, so that whilst he makes an exag- 
gerated record of the number of enemies he has slain, keeping his score 
by notches cut upon his " coup stick," he is reluctant to admit the extent 
of his own punishment. 

Again, in the casualties to the troops, there were repeated instances 
of officers and soldiers reported wounded, who died, later, from the 
effects of the injuries received ; whilst the number who were actually 
disabled for life, or entirely incapacitated for further military service, 
from the results of exposure and hardships involved by campaigns in 
pitiless winter weather, in the heart of the Indian country, far from 
shelter and supplies, will doubtless exceed the killed and wounded 
upon the field of battle. 



The Military Division of the Missouri, 



The Military Division of the Missouri was established January 30th, 
1865, by General Orders No. 11, War Department, series of 1865. It 
then included the Departments of the Missouri and of the North West, 
with Headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri. March 21st, 1865, by General 
Orders, 44, series of 1865, from the War Department, the Department of 
Arkansas and the Indian Territory were transferred to it from the Divi- 
sion of the West Mississippi. June 27th, 1865, by General Orders, 118, 
series of 1865, from the War Department, the Division of the Missouri 
was merged into the Division of the Mississippi, embracing* the Depart- 
ments of the Ohio, of the Missouri and of Arkansas; Headquarters at St. 
Louis. August 6th, 1866, the name of the Division was changed to 
" Military Division of the Missouri," comprising the Departments of 
the Arkansas, the Missouri, the Platte and a new Department to be 
created, Dakota. 

The State of Arkansas was taken from the Division, March 11th, 
1867, by General Orders, 10, series of 1867, from Headquarters of the 
Army, and on March 16th, 1869, by General Orders, 18, series of 1869, 
from Headquarters of the Army, the State of Illinois was added to the 
Division. The Department of Texas was added to the Division, Novem- 
ber 1st, 1871, by General Orders, 66, series of 1871, from the War 
Department, and the Department of the Gulf was added, January 4th, 
1875. June 22nd, 1875, the limits of the Department of the Platte, 
belonging to the Division, were extended to include Fort Hall, Idaho, by 
General Orders, 65, series of 1875, from the War Department. 

At the present time, 1882, the Military Division of the Missouri con- 
sists of the Departments of Dakota, the Platte, the Missouri and Texas. 

The Department of Dakota comprises the State of Minnesota and the 
Territories of Dakota and Montana. 

The Department of the Platte includes the States of Iowa and 
Nebraska, the Territories of Wyoming and Utah, and a portion of Idaho. 

The Department of the Missouri embraces the States of Illinois, Mis- 
souri, Kansas and Colorado, Indian Territory and Territory of New Mex- 
ico, with two posts in Northern Texas, Forts Elliott and Bliss. 

The Department of Texas consists of the State of Texas. 

The Division thus includes the territory extending from the British 
boundary on the north, to the Mexican frontier of the Rio Grande on the 



6 



south, and from Chicago on the east, to the western boundaries of New 
Mexico, Utah and Montana, on the west. 

To garrison the military posts and to furnish troops for field opera- 
tions, the present force in the Division comprises : eight regiments of 
cavalry, twenty regiments of infantry, and one battery of artillery; 
aggregating 15,940 officers and men. 



Indians and Indian Wars, 



The principal Indian tribes living within the limits of the Division, 
are distributed as follows : 

In the north, in the Department of Dakota, are to be found the Sioux, 
Northern Cheyennes, Crows, Chippewas, Poncas, Assinaboines, Flat- 
heads, Piegans and Gros Ventres. 

In the Department of the Platte, are the Bannocks, Shoshones, Utes, 
Arapahoes, Pawnees, Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies, Omahas, Kickapoos, 
Miamis, Poncas and Otoes. 

In the Department of the Missouri, are the Northern and Southern 
Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, Apaches, Navajoes, Pueblos 
and semi-civilized tribes in the Indian Territory (Choctaws, Cherokees, 
Chickasaws, etc.,) while in the Department of Texas are the Lipans, 
Seminoles and Tonkawas; that Department being also the resort of the 
roving and predatory bands from New Mexico and Old Mexico. 

The taking of an Indian census is always a matter of extreme diffi- 
culty, owing to the objection of the Indian against being counted. 
With the best information attainable, however, the entire number of 
Indian tribes embraced within the limits of the Military Division of the 
Missouri, is ninety-nine; aggregating about one hundred and seventy-five 
thousand persons who are scattered over an area of more than one mil- 
lion square miles of frontier country. 

Since the date at which this record of engagements begins, (March 
2d, 1868,) those tribes in the Division which have been most actively 
engaged in hostilities with the whites, are the Sioux, Northern and 
Southern Cheyennes, Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, Utes and Apaches. 
In addition to the wars with these tribes, the Division has been invaded, 
at intervals, by hostiles from the outside, some of the more notable 
engagements having been with Indians belonging to the Military De- 
partments of the Pacific Slope; such as the Nez Perces, the Bannocks 
and the Arizona Apaches; with periodical incursions from old Mexico, 
by bands who-affiliated with our own Indians living near the Rio Grande 
frontier. 



1 S 6 8. 



In the Department of the Missouri, in the spring of 1868, only a very 
few minor engagements with Indians were reported, previous to the gen- 
eral outbreak which occurred in the summer of that year; they were 
chiefly in the District of New Mexico and occurred as follows: 

On March 11th, Apache Indians raided the settlements in the neigh- 
borhood of Tulerosa, New Mexico, killing and mutilating eleven men 
and two women, capturing one child, running off a large number of 
sheep, about 2,200, and other stock. These marauders, were pursued by 
a detachment of Troop u H," 3d Cavalry, under command of 1st Lieut. 
P. D. Vroom, 3d Cavalry, but having the advantage of three days start, 
the Indians escaped into the Guadaloupe Mountains, abandoning some of 
the sheep which were recovered. 

March 25th, the settlers upon Bluff Creek, Kansas, were attacked by 
Indians and driven from their houses, no details of this raid being offi- 
cially reported. 

April 17th, at Nesmith's Mills, New Mexico, a detachment of Troop 
" H," 3d Cavalry, commanded by Sergeant Glass, had a fight with 
Indians, the troops having one man wounded. Ten Indians were reported 
killed and twenty-five wounded. 

June 6th, Captain D. Monahan, 3d Cavalry, in command of detach- 
ments of Troops " G," and " I," 3d Cavalry, started from Fort Sumner, 
New Mexico, in pursuit of a band of Navajoe Indians who had murdered 
four citizens, within twelve miles of that post. He followed their trail 
for a hundred miles, finally surprising them in a ravine, where he killed 
three Indians and wounded eleven, the balance escaping. The troops 
sustained no losses. 

June 25th, near Fort Hays, Kansas, a detachment of troops attacked 
and pursued a band of hostile Indians, but no casualties occurred. 

THE OUTBREAK OF 1868. 

Early in August a body of about 225 Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Sioux 
appeared among the advanced settlements on the Saline River, north of 
Fort Harker, Kansas. On August 10th, after being hospitably fed by 
the farmers, the Indians attacked them, robbed their houses and brutally 
outraged four females until insensible. Six houses were attacked, plun- 
dered and burned. 



10 



On the same day, August 10th, near the Cimmaron River, Kansas, 
two separate attacks were made by Indians upon the advance and rear 
guards of a column of troops commanded by Lieut. Colonel Alfred Sully, 
3d Infantry. The attack upon the advance guard was repulsed by a 
charge, in which two Indians were killed, without casualty to the troops. 
In the attack upon the rear guard, who made a successful defence, one 
soldier was killed. Ten Indians were reported killed and twelve 
wounded. 

August 12th, Indians attempted to stampede the stock by a dash into 
the camp of the column under General Sully, but were frustrated in their 
designs. Later they attacked his main body, in large force, but were 
repulsed after a severe fight, lasting several hours, in which two soldiers 
were killed and three wounded. Twelve Indians were reported killed 
and fifteen wounded. 

August 12th, the Indians who had raided the settlements on the 
Saline, on August 10th, devastated those on the Solomon River, Kansas, 
where, though kindly received and fed by the people, they plundered and 
burned five houses, stole ten head of stock cattle, murdered fifteen per- 
sons, wounded two and outraged five women. Two of these unfortunate 
women were also shot and badly wounded. A small band crossed to the 
Republican River and killed two persons there, but the main bodv 
returned to the Saline, with two captive children, named Bell. Here 
they again attacked the settlers, with the evident intention of clearing 
out the entire valley; but, whilst a Mr. Schermerhorn was defending his 
house, Captain Benteen, with his troop of the 7th Cavalry, arrived by a 
swift march from Fort Zarah, went to the relief of the house and ran the 
Indians about ten miles. Two women who had been ravished and cap- 
tured by the Indians were rescued. The same day Major Douglass, com- 
manding at Fort Dodge, Kansas, reported that a band of Cheyennes had 
robbed the camp of R. M. Wright of two horses and some arms, and 
that 132 horses and mules had been run off from a Mexican train at Paw- 
nee Fork above Cimmaron Crossing. 

August 13th, General Sully's command, in Southern Kansas, was 
again attacked, one soldier was killed and four wounded. The troops 
routed the Indians, of whom ten were reported killed and twelve 
wounded. 

August 14th, at Granny Creek, on the Republican, a house was plun- 
dered and burned, one person killed, one wounded and one woman out- 
raged and captured. The same day near Fort Zarah, Kansas, Indians 
ran off twenty mules, which were recaptured by the troops. One man 
was wounded, one Indian reported killed and five wounded. 

August 18th, Indians attacked a train on Pawnee Fork, Kansas, and 
kept it corralled for two days, but were unable to capture it. Cavalry 
from Fort Dodge arrived and dispersed the Indians who returned to the 



11 



attack the same night, but were again repulsed. Five men were 
wounded; the Indian loss, estimated, was five killed and ten wounded. 

August 19th, a party of wood choppers on Twin Butte Creek, were 
attacked by about thirty Indians, three killed and nine cut off, as reported 
by Lieut. G. Lewis, 5th Infantry, on August 23d. All the animals (25) 
were driven off, and Mr. Jones, the contractor, chased, though making 
his escape by abandoning his horse and concealing himself amongst some 
trees in a ravine. 

August 22d, Indians ran off twelve head of stock from the town of 
Sheridan, Kansas. 

August 23d, the stage to Cheyenne Wells had to return, being chased 
by thirty Indians, four miles. The same day Captain Bankhead, 5th 
Infantry, commanding Fort Wallace, Kansas, reported the Denver stage 
coach attacked by Indians, between Pond Creek and Lake Station; also 
that Comstock's ranch was attacked on the night of August 20th; two 
men were killed and the others living there driven into Pond Creek, one 
man being mortally wounded and dying at Fort Wallace on the night of 
August 21st. In northern Texas, eight persons were killed and three 
hundred head of stock cattle captured. At Bent's Fort, on the Arkansas, 
fifteen horses and mules and four head of cattle were also run off. 

August 24th, in the vicinity of Bent's Fort, three stage coaches and 
one wagon train were attacked. 

August 25th, Indians killed a herder, near Fort Dodge, Kansas, and 
Acting Governor Hall, of Colorado, reported a band of two hundred 
Indians devastating southern Colorado. 

August 27th, Captain Bankhead, 5th Infantry, commanding Fort 
Wallace, reported that a band of thirteen Indians killed a citizen, named 
Woodworth, between Fort Lyon and the town of Sheridan; another 
citizen, named Wm. McCarty, was killed on the 23d, near Lake Station, 
Colorado. Thirty Indians attacked the stage near Cheyenne Wells and 
would have captured it, but for the stout resistance of the escort. A 
body of about two hundred and fifty Indians also threatened the train of 
Captain Butler, 5th Infantry, causing him to return to Big Springs. 
Acting Governor Hall, of Colorado, again telegraphed that Arapahoes 
were killing settlers and destroying ranches in all directions. Lieut. F. 
H. Beecher, 3d Infantry, reported two experienced government scouts, 
named Comstock and Grover, attacked by Indians professing friendship. 
Both were shot in the back, Comstock instantly killed ; but, by lying on 
the ground and making a defence of Comstock's body, Grover kept off 
the Indians till night and made his escape. 

August 28th, near Kiowa Station, Indians killed three men and drove 
off fifty head of stock. Mr. Stickney, the station keeper, whilst with one 
man, in a wagon, was attacked and wounded. The Sergeant at Lake 



12 



Station reported two employes driven in there and the station ke'eper and 
stock tender at Reed's Spring, driven off. 

August 29th, Captain Penrose, 3d Infantry, commanding Fort Lyon, 
reported a train of thirteen wagons attacked by Indians, eighteen miles 
from the Arkansas River, the oxen killed, and the train destroyed; the 
men in charge, twenty-one in number, escaping in the night, to Fort 
Lyon. 

x\ugust 31st, Lieut. Riley, 5th Infantry, reported Indians had run off 
two hundred horses and forty cattle, from the stage company's station at 
Kiowa Creek. 

September 1st, near Lake Station, J. H. Jones, stage agent, reported 
a woman and a child killed and scalped, and thirty head of stock run off 
b}^ Indians; at Reed's Springs, three persons were killed and three 
wounded; at Spanish Fort, Texas, four persons were murdered, eight 
scalped, fifteen horses and mules run off and three women outraged; one 
of these three women was outraged by thirteen Indians who afterwards 
killed and scalped her and then killed her four little children. 

September 2d, on Little Coon Creek, Kansas, a wagon, guarded by 
four soldiers, commanded by Sergeant Dixon, Company "A," 3d Infantry, 
were attacked by about forty Indians. Three of the men were badly 
wounded; three Indians were killed and one wounded. One of the men 
bravely volunteered to go to Fort Dodge, for help, which eventually 
arrived, under command of Lieut. Wallace, 3d Infantry. 

September 4th, Major Tilford, 7th Cavalry, commanding Fort Rey- 
nolds, Colorado, reported four persons killed, the day before, near Colo- 
rado City. A large body of Indians also attacked the station at Hugo 
Springs, but were repulsed by the guards. 

September 5th, Indians drove off five head of stock from Hugo Springs 
and then went off and burned Willow Springs station. 

September 6th and 7th, twenty-five persons were killed in Colorado, 
and on the 7th, Hon. Schuyler Colfax telegraphed: " Hostile Indians have 
been striking simultaneously at isolated settlements in Colorado, for a 
circuit of over two hundred miles." 

September 8th, Captain Bankhead, 5th Infantry, commanding Fort 
Wallace, reported about twenty-five Indians had killed and scalped two 
citizens near Sheridan and also drove off seventy-six horses and mules, 
from Clark's train on Turkey Creek. 

Lieut. Wallingford, 7th Cavalry, was sent to assist a wood train of 
thirty-five wagons and fifty men, attacked at Cimmaron crossing, who 
had been fighting four days. They had two men and two horses killed, 
seventy-five head of cattle run off and many mules wounded. Five miles 
further west, the remains of another train of ten wagons captured and 
burned, were found; fifteen men with this train were burned to death by 
the Indians. 



13 



September 9th, between Fort Wallace and Sheridan, Kansas, Indians 
burned a ranch and killed six persons. The same ranch was also burned 
two weeks before and had been rebuilt. 

September 10th, Indians raided settlements on Purgatoire River. 
Troops from Fort Lyon, under Captain Penrose, 3d Infantry, pursued 
rapidly, overtook the Indians on Rule Creek, Colorado, and killed four, 
recovering twelve head of stolen stock. Two soldiers were killed and 
one wounded, and five horses died from exhaustion in the chase. The 
same day Captain Butler, 5th .Infantry, Fort Wallace, reported the stage 
fired into by Indians, four miles east of Lake Station. 

September 11th, eighty-one head of stock cattle, belonging to Clarke 
and Co., hay contractors, were run off from Lake Creek. 

September 12th, General Nichols, traveling to Fort Reynolds, was 
attacked by Indians who were driven off by the guard. They then ran 
off eighty-five head of stock belonging to Thompson and McGee, near 
Bent's old fort, and made a raid on a house at Point of Rocks, running 
off four head of stock there. 

Between September 11th and loth, the column commanded by Lieut. 
Colonel Alfred Sully, 3d Infantry, consisting of Troops "A," " B," " C," 
"D," " E," "F," "G," "I," and "K," 7th Cavalry, and Company " F," 
3d Infantry, had a series of fights with Indians. Three soldiers were 
killed and five wounded. The total Indian loss was reported as twenty- 
two killed and twelve wounded. 

September 15th, on Big Sandy Creek, Colorado, Troop "I," 10th 
Cavalry, commanded by Captain Graham, were attacked by about one 
huudred Indians, and seven soldiers were wounded. Eleven Indians 
were reported killed and fourteen wounded. 

September 17th, Ellis Station, Kansas, was burned and one man 
killed. The settlements on Saline River, Kansas, were again raided by 
Indians, who were attacked, driven off and pursued by a detachment of 
7th Cavalry, three soldiers being wounded; the Indian loss, estimated, 
was three killed and five wounded. Three miles from Fort Bascom, New 
Mexico, Indians also killed a herder and ran off thirty mules; troops from 
the post pursued the Indians for one hundred and twenty-five miles, but 
could not overtake them. 

Brevet Colonel G. A. Forsyth, with his company of fifty scouts, took 
the trail of a party of Indians who had committed depredations near 
Sheridan City, and followed it to the Arickaree Fork of the Republican 
River, where he was attacked, on the 17th of September, by about seven 
hundred Indians, and after a very gallant fight repulsed the savages, 
inflicting a loss on them of thirty-five killed and many wounded. In the 
engagement Lieutenant F. H. Beecher and Surgeon Moore were killed, 
Forsyth twice wounded, and four of his scouts killed and fifteen wounded, 
the commanded existing on horseflesh, only, for a period of eight days. 



14 



The gallantry displayed by this brave little command is worthy of the 
highest commendation, but it was only in keeping with the character of 
the two gallant officers in command of it, Brevet Colonel G. A. Forsyth, 
and Lieutenant Frederick H. Beecher. While the command was belea- 
guered, two scouts stole through the Indian lines and brought word to 
Fort Wallace of its .perilous situation. Brevet Colonel H. C. Bankhead, 
Captain 5th Infantry, commanding Fort Wallace, with the most com- 
mendable energy started to its relief with one hundred men from that 
point, and Brevet Lieut. Colonel Carpenter's company of the 10th Cav- 
alry, reaching Forsyth on the morning of the 25th of September. Upon 
receipt by telegraph and couriers, of the news of Forsyth's desperate sit- 
uation, a column of troops under General Bradley, from the Department 
of the Platte, then in the field, in the vicinity of the Republican River, 
also pushed hard for the scene of his fight, to lend assistance, arriving 
almost simultaneously with the relief column of Colonel Bankhead, from 
Fort Wallace, Kansas. 

September 19th, Captain Bankhead, 5th Infantry, Fort Wallace, 
reported a body of fifteen Indians had fired into the Mexican ranch, four 
miles east of Big Timber, Kansas. 

September 29th, on Sharp's Creek, Indians attacked a house, captur- 
ing Mr. Bassett, his wife and child. They burned the house, killed Mr. 
Bassett, and after carrying off Mrs. Bassett, with her baby only two days 
old, finding her too weak to travel, they outraged her, stripped her naked 
and left her with her infant to perish on the prairie. 

October 2d, General Hazen reported an attack on Fort Zarah by 
about one hundred Indians who were, however, driven off. They then 
attacked a provision train, killed a teamster and stole the mules from 
four teams, after which they attacked a ranch, eight miles distant, and 
drove off one hundred and sixty head of stock. General Sully also 
reported an attack by Indians on a train between Fort Larned and Fort 
Dodge; three citizens were killed, three wounded and over fifty mules 
run off. 

October 4th, Major Douglass reported that Indians had wounded a 
Mexican at Lime-Kiln; also that they had attacked a train on the road, 
killed two men, wounded two, destroyed stores and ran off stock, whilst 
also, at Asher Creek settlement, Indians ran off seven head of horses and 
mules. 

October 10th, eight horses and mules were run off from Fort Zarah, 
as reported by Lieut. Kaiser, 3d Infantry. 

October 11th, Captain Penrose, 3d Infantry, reported three hundred 
Indians on the Purgatoire, on October 7th, and that they had killed a 
Mexican and run off thirty-eight head of stock. 

October 12th, Lieutenant Belger, 3d Infantry, reported a party of 



15 



Indians near Ellsworth, Kansas, where they killed one man and several 
were missing. 

October loth, a house at Brown's Creek was attacked. 

October 14th, Indians attacked camp of 5th Cavalry on Prairie Dog 
Creek, Kansas. Of Troop " L," 5th Cavalry, one man was killed and 
one wounded'. The Indians also ran off twenty-six cavalry horses. On 
the same day Captain Penrose, 3d Infantry, reported that Indians had 
attacked a train on Sand Creek, Colorado. Led by " Satanta," chief of 
the Kiowas, they ran off the cattle and captured a Mrs. Blinn and her 
child. These prisoners were afterwards cruelly murdered by the Indians, 
in General Custer's attack on " Black Kettle's" camp, November 27th. 

October 15th, on Fisher and Yocucy Creeks, a house was attacked, 
four persons killed, one wounded, and one woman captured. 

October 18th, on Beaver Creek, Kansas, Troops " H," " I," and " M," 
10th Cavalry, Captain L. H. Carpenter, commanding, had a fight with a 
large body of Indians, in which three soldiers were wounded and ten 
Indians killed. 

October 23d, at Fort Zarah two persons were killed by Indians who 
sustained a loss of two killed. 

October 25th and 26th, a column consisting of Troops "A," " B," " F," 
4i jj " a j» « l^" an( j " M," 5th Cavalry, and a company of scouts, under 
Major E. A. Carr, 5th Cavalry, had a fight with a large body of Indians 
on Beaver Creek, Kansas. One soldier was wounded; the Indians had 
thirty killed, a number wounded, and lost, also, about one hundred and 
thirty ponies, mostly killed, besides a large amount of camp equipage. 

October 26th, near Central City, New Mexico, three citizens were 
killed by Indians. 

October 30th, in an attack on Grinnell Station, Kansas, one Indian 
was wounded. 

November 7th, on Coon Creek, Kansas, the stage was attacked and a 
horse captured by Indians. 

November 15th, a squadron of the 7th Cavalry struck a party of 
Indians one hundred and forty miles from Fort Harker and pursued them 
for ten miles; Indian loss, estimated, was five wounded. 

November 17th, Indians attacked a train seven miles from Fort Har- 
ker and ran off about one hundred and fifty mules. 

November 18th, Indians killed two government scouts, seven miles 
from Fort Hays, Kansas, and captured their horses. 

November 19th, on little Coon Creek, Kansas, one person was mur- 
dered and five Indians killed. The same day near Fort Dodge, one 
white person and two Indians were killed. In the same vicinity a 
detachment of Troop "A," 10th Cavalry, under Sergeant Wilson, had a 
fight in which two Indians were killed. [Indians also attempted to stam- 
pede the beef contractor's herd, half a mile from Fort Dodge, Kansas; 



16 



Lieutenant Q. Campbell, 5th Infantry, with companies "A," and "H," 3d 
Infantry, and a detachment of 5th Infantry, pursued the Indians for seven 
miles, killing four and wounding six of them. The troops had three men 
woundecL 

November 20th, on Mulberry Creek, south of Fort Dodge, two govern- 
ment scouts named Marshall and Davis, were killed by Indians. 

November 25th, in the Indian Territory, twenty horses and mules 
were stolen and two Indians killed. 



In addition to the foregoing murders and outrages, the following were 
reported by Acting Indian Agent, S. T. Walkley, and P. McCusker, 
U. S. Interpreter; all occurring- in northern Texas. January, 1868, 
twenty-five persons were killed, nine scalped and fourteen children cap- 
tured; the latter were afterwards frozen to death whilst in captivity. In 
February, seven were killed, fifty horses and mules stolen and five chil- 
dren captured; two of the latter were surrendered to Colonel Leaven- 
worth, and the remaining three taken to Kansas. In May, three houses 
were attacked, plundered and burned. In June, one person was killed 
and three children belonging to Mr. McElroy, captured; while in July, 
on the Brazos River, Texas, four persons were killed. In ne'arly all these 
instances, the most savage and horrible barbarities were perpetrated upon 
the unfortunate victims of the Indians. 

So boldly had this system of murder and robbery been carried on, 
that, since June, 1862, not less than eight hundred persons had been 
murdered, the Indians escaping from the troops, by traveling at night, 
when their trail could not be followed, thus gaining enough time and dis- 
tance to render pursuit, in most cases, fruitless. This wholesale maraud- 
ing would be maintained during the seasons when the Indian ponies 
could subsist upon the grass, and then, in the winter, the savages would 
hide away, with their villages, in remote and isolated places, to live upon 
their plunder, glory in the scalps taken and in the horrible debasement 
of the unfortunate women whom they held as prisoners. The experience 
of many years of this character of depredations, with perfect immunity to 
themselves and families, had made the Indians very bold. To disabuse 
their minds of the idea that they were secure from punishment, and to 
strike them at a period when they were helpless to move their stock and 
villages, a winter campaign was projected against the large bands hiding 
away in the Indian Territory. 

General Getty, commanding the District of New Mexico, was directed 
to send out a column from Fort Bascom, New Mexico; this was com- 
manded by Brevet Lieut. Colonel A. W. Evans, 3d Cavalry. Another 
was started out from Fort Lyon, Colorado, under General E. A. Carr; 



V 



17 

whilst a third, and the largest, consisting of eleven troops of the 7th 
Cavalry, under General Custer, and twelve companies of Kansas volun- 
teer cavalry, together with several companies of the 3d and 5th Infantry, 
was organized, at Fort Dodge, Kansas, under command of General Sully. 
The last named expedition established " Camp Supply" in the Indian 
Territory, whither the Department Commander, General Sheridan, pro- 
ceeded in person to supervise operations during this experimental cam- 
paign. 

General Sheridan personally accompanied the main column from 
Camp Supply to Fort Cobb, directing all of its operations as well as those 
of the columns from Fort Lyon, under General Carr, and from Fort Bas- 
com, under Colonel Evans, until the final surrender of the Indians and 
the close of the winter's campaign. 

The objects of the winter's operations were to strike the Indians a 
hard blow and force them on to the reservations set apart for them; or, 
if this could not be accomplished, to show to the Indian that the winter 
season would not give him rest; that he with his villages and stock, could 
be destroyed; that he would have no security, winter or summer, except 
in obeying the laws of peace and humanity. 

The plan of operations to accomplish these purposes, was to allow the 
small column from Fort Bascom, consisting of six troops of cavalry, 
two companies of infantry, and four mountain howitzers, aggregating 
r five hundred and sixty-three men, operate along the main Canadian, 
establishing a depot at Monument Creek, and remaining out as long as it 
could be supplied, at least until sometime in January; the column of 
General Carr, seven troops of the Fifth Cavalry, to unite with a force 
under Captain Penrose, then out, composed of one troop of the 7th and 
four of the 10th Cavalry, establish a depot on the headwaters of the 
North Canadian, and operate south towards the Antelope Hills and head- 
waters, of Red River. These columns were really beaters in and were 
not expected to accomplish much. The main column from " Camp Sup- 
ply" was expected to strike the Indians, either on the headwaters of the 
Washita, or still further south on the branches of Red River. 

November 26th, General Custer struck the trail of a war party, com- 
posed of " Black Kettle's" band of Cheyennes, with other Cheyennes and 
Arapahoes. They had been north, had killed the mail carriers between 
Dodge and Larned, also an old hunter at Dodge, and two expressmen 
sent back, by General Sheridan with letters. As soon as Custer struck 
the trail he corraled his wagons, left a small escort with them and fol- 
lowed the Indian trail, which was very fresh and well marked in the deep 
snow, until it led into Black Kettle's village on the Washita. The next 
morning, before daylight, the Osage Indian trailers discovered the village 
of the Indians, and notified Custer, who at once made the most admirable 
dispositions for its attack and capture. At dawn a charge was made, the 



1.8 

vil]age captured and burned, eight hundred horses or ponies shot, in 
accordance with positive orders, one hundred and three warriors killed, 
and fifty-three squaws and children captured. 

Whilst this work was going on, all the Indians for a distance of fifteen 
miles, down the Washita, collected and attacked Custer; these Indians 
were Cheyennes, Comanches, Kiowas and Apaches; they were driven 
down the stream for a distance of four or five miles, when, as night was 
approaching, Custer withdrew and returned to a small train of provisions . 
which he had directed to follow up his movements. Our loss, in the 
attack at the village, was Captain Louis M. Hamilton and three men 
killed, with three officers and eleven men wounded. Unfortunately, 
Major Elliott, of the 7th Cavalry, a very gallant and promising young 
officer, seeing some of the young boys escape, followed, with the Ser- 
geant Major and fifteen men to capture and bring them in; after secur- 
ing them and while on their way back to the regiment, Elliott's party 
were surrounded and killed. It occurred in this way: Elliott followed 
the boys, shortly after the attack on the viilage, taking a course due 
south, and nearly at right angles to the Washita River. After traveling 
south a mile and a half from the village, a very small branch of the Wash- 
ita was crossed and an open prairie reached; on this prairie the boys were 
captured and were being brought back, when the party was attacked by 
Indians from below, numbering from one thousand to fifteen hundred. 
Elliott fought his way back towards the small creek before named, until 
within rifle range of the creek, when he was stopped by Indians who had 
taken position in the bed of the creek and picked off his men who 
formed a little circle, around which their dead and horribly mutilated 
bodies were found. No one of those back with the regiment knew of 
Elliott's party having followed the Indian boys; no one heard the report 
of their guns and no one knew of their exact fate until they were discov- 
ered afterwards, savagely mutilated almost beyond recognition. 

General Custer, after destroying the village and driving the Indians 
some four or five miles down the Washita, returned, as before mentioned, 
to the train of supplies which he had directed to follow him and next day 
started back to Camp Supply with his prisoners, where he arrived on the 
1st of December. 

The blow that Custer had struck was a hard one, and fell on the 
guiltiest of all the bands, that of Black Kettle. It was this band, with 
others, that, without provocation, had massacred the settlers on the 
Saline and Solomon, and perpetrated cruelties too fiendish for recital. 

In his camp were found numerous articles recognized as the property 
of the unfortunate victims of the butcheries before described; also a 
blank book with Indian illustrations of the various deviltries they had 
perpetrated. They had spared neither age nor sex; in all instances rav- 
ishing the women, sometimes forty or fifty times, and whilst insensible 



19 

from brutality and exhaustion, forced sticks up their persons. On one 
occasion a savage drew a sabre and used it in the same barbarous man- 
ner upon the person of the wretched woman who had fallen into his 
hands. 

With the capture and destruction of Black Kettle's village, the work 
of the expedition was not complete. Although the weather was bitter 
cold, the thermometer 18° below zero, with blinding snow storms raging, 
the column pressed on, digging and bridging ravines for the passage of 
the train. This was continued until the evening of December 16th, when 
the vicinity of the Indians was again reached. They were mostly Kiowas 
and did not dream that soldiers could operate against them in such awful 
weather. Completely taken by surprise, they agreed that all the warriors 
should join the column and march with it to Fort Cobb, while their vil- 
lages moved to the same point. This was only a decoy, however, to save 
themselves from attack; for all slipped ofT, excepting the head chiefs 
Satan ta and Lone Wolf, whom Custer had been ordered to arrest. When 
the column reached Fort Cobb, it was found that the villages, instead of 
moving there, were already nearly a hundred miles distant, hurrying in 
the opposite direction. Orders were immediately issued for the execu- 
tion of the chiefs Satanta and Lone Wolf, unless the villages should 
deliver themselves up at Fort Cobb, in two days. All came back even- 
tually, under this pressure, and the lives of their chiefs were saved. At 
Fort Cobb were found most of the Comanches and Apaches, who had 
hastened in to the reservation, there, after the fight with Custer, on the 
Washita, November 27th. 

While these operations were going on, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel A. 
W. Evans moved from Fort Bascom up the main Canadian, to Monument 
Creek, there established his depot, and with the most commendable 
energy, struck off south, on to the headwaters of Red River, discovered a 
trail of hostile Comanches who had refused to come in, followed it up 
with perseverance, and on the 25th of December, attacked the party, 
killed, as nearly as could be ascertained, twenty-five, wounded a large 
number, captured and burned their village, destroyed a large amount of 
property and then moved to a point about twelve miles west of Fort 
Cobb. 

Meanwhile, General Carr was scouting along the main Canadian, west 
of the Antelope Hills, and the country was becoming so unhealthy for 
Indians, that the Arapahoes and the remainder of the Cheyennes con- 
cluded to surrender and go upon the reservation selected for them. The 
operations of the troops had forced these Indians over into the eastern 
edge of the Staked Plains, where there was no game, and the limited 
amount of supplies which they had been able to put up for the winter, 
had been mostly lost in the engagement on the Washita and in their sub- 
sequent flight. 



20 



The surrender was made by " Little Robe," with other representative 
chiefs, for the Cheyennes, by " Little Raven " and " Yellow Bear," for 
the Arapahoes, by "Lone Wolf and " Satanta," for the Kiowas, and by 
" Esse-Ha-Habit," for the Comanches ; they agreed to deliver up their 
people at Fort Cobb, as speedily as possible, claiming that it would take 
some time to get in, on account of the exhausted condition of their stock. 

The Arapahoes were faithful to their agreement and delivered them- 
selves up under their head chief, " Little Raven." The Cheyennes broke 
their promise and did not come in, so General Custer was ordered against 
them, and came upon them on the headwaters of Red River, apparently 
moving north; it is possible they were on their way to Camp Supply, as 
they had been informed that, if they did not get into the Fort Cobb 
reservation within a certain time, they would not be received there, but 
would be received at Camp Supply. 

Custer found them in a very forlorn condition, and could have 
destroyed most of the tribe, certainly their villages, but contented him- 
self with taking their renewed promise to come into Camp Supply, and 
obtained from them two white women whom they held as captives. The 
most of the tribe fulfilled this latter promise so far as coming into the 
vicinity of Camp Supply and communicating with the commanding offi- 
cer; but " Tall Bulls" band again violated the promise made and went 
north to the Republican, where they joined a party of Sioux, who, on the 
13th of May, 1869, were attacked by General Carr and defeated with 
heavy loss; whereupon, the whole tribe moved into Camp Supply. 

Whilst the Arapahoes and Cheyennes were negotiating for surrender, 
the Quehada, or Staked Plains Comanches, sent a delegation to Fort Bas- 
com, offering to surrender themselves, expecting, perhaps, to obtain bet- 
ter terms there than had been offered them already; but General Getty 
arrested the delegation which was ordered to Fort Leavenworth and 
finally returned to their people, upon condition that they would all 
deliver themselves up on the reservation at Medicine Bluff or at Fort 
Sill. This they complied with and so were fulfilled all the objects had in 
view at the commencement of the winter's campaign, viz.; punishment 
inflicted, property destroyed, the Indians convinced that winter would no 
longer bring them security, and most of the tribes south of the Platte 
forced upon the reservations set apart for them by the government. 

In all, from March 2d, 1868, to February 9th, 1869, there were offici- 
ally reported in the Department of the Missouri, three hundred and fifty- 
three officers, soldiers and citizens, killed, wounded, or captured by 
Indians. Of the Indians there were reported, officially, three hundred 
and nineteen killed, two hundred and eighty-nine wounded and fifty- 
three captured. The numbers of the Indians who surrendered at the 
various points mentioned, were not officially ascertained, with accuracy, 
but they amounted to about twelve thousand. 



18 6 9. 



Whilst the majority of the Indians who had been devastating the lines 
of the Arkansas, the Smoky Hill and the southern tributaries of the 
Republican, were now upon reservations, depredating continued in vari- 
ous localities, and engagements with Indians were constantly reported. 

January 28th, among the settlements on the Solomon River, a scouting 
party of the 7th Cavalry had two men wounded, six Indians being 
reported killed and ten wounded. 

January 29th, on Mulberry Creek, Kansas, a detachment of Cavalry 
under Captain Edward Byrne, 10th Cavalry, had a fight in which two 
men were wounded and six Indians killed. 

February 7th, troops from Fort Selden, New Mexico, pursued Indians 
who had stolen stock three miles from that post, but the marauders 
escaped into the mountains before they could be overtaken. 

March 9th, near Fort Harker, Kansas, Indians with stolen stock were 
overtaken by troops, five Indians captured and all the stock recovered. 

March 17th, near Fort Bayard, New Mexico, Apaches committed 
some murders and depredations. Troops pursued them hotly to their 
village which, with its contents, was burned and five Indians wounded; 
no casualties to the troops. 

April 7th, on the Musselshell River, Montana, detachments of Com- 
panies " D," "F," and " G," 13th Infantry, commanded by Captain E. 
W. Clift, 13th Infantry, had a fight in which nine Indians were killed; 
one soldier was killed and two wounded. 

April 16th, near Fort Wallace, Kansas, Indians attacked and chased 
an officer and his escort into the post, but without casualties on either 
side. 

April 20th, in the Department of the Missouri, troops pursued maraud- 
ing Indians, — locality not stated, — wounded three Indians, burned their 
camp and recovered fifty head of stolen stock. 

April 22d, in Sangre Canon, New Mexico, a cavalry scouting party 
overtook a band of hostile Indians, wounding five of them, and recover- 
ing nineteen horses and a stolen cheque for $500. 

May 2d, near San Augustine, New Mexico, Indians ambushed a train 
guarded by soldiers and made a desperate but unsuccessful effort to cap- 
ture it. Two soldiers were killed and four wounded; five Indians were 
killed and ten reported wounded. 



22 



May 10th, at Fort Hays, Kansas, Indian prisoners made a murderous 
assault with knives upon their guards, mortally wounding the Sergeant 
in charge, but were overpowered. 

Extensive field operations against the southern Indians having been 
relieved by the surrender of large numbers and the escape northward of 
bands who went in that direction to join their allies in the neighborhood 
of the Platte, the column of seven troops of the 5th Cavalry which, under 
General Carr, had scouted southward from Fort Lyon, the previous 
winter, marching upwards of twelve hundred miles, was directed to 
proceed across the country from the Arkansas to the Platte, carefully 
patroling the valleys of the intermediate streams for any bands of hos- 
tiles lurking there. The command left the vicinity of Fort Wallace, 
Kansas, May 10th, and on the 13th found indications of Indians upon 
Beaver Creek. A party of ten men, under Lieutenant Ward, were sent 
to reconnoitre and about eight miles from " Elephant Rock," saw the 
smoke of a large village. Lieutenant Ward's reconnoissance was dis- 
covered by a hunting party of Indians and his detachment narrowly 
escaped capture, being obliged* to charge through the Indians in regaining 
the main column. The latter in full force galloped off to the attack of 
the village which had taken flight, upon their discovering the troops, the 
warriors remaining back to fight and cover the retreat of their families. 
The column made a brilliant charge in which three soldiers were killed 
and four wounded ; of the Indians, twenty-five were reported killed 
and fifty wounded. Night came on and the following morning, after 
destro} T ing the Indian camp with much of its property, the pursuit was 
taken up, the wagon train dropped with an escort, and the column, 
with five days rations on their horses, pushed ahead upon the trail. This 
was followed energetically and on May 16th, on Spring Creek, Nebraska, 
the advance guard under Lieutenant Volkmar, 5th Cavalry, overtook the 
Indians, about four hundred warriors strong, w T ho turned upon the party 
and nearly captured it, after a determined resistance in which three 
soldiers were wounded and many of the horses, the detachment defend- 
ing themselves stoutly behind the bodies of their horses against repeated 
charges. The main column arrived' in time to rescue the advance guard, 
the Indians taking flight before they could be struck in force. A hot 
chase for some fifteen miles ensued across the Republican again south- 
ward, the Indians at dark breaking up into small parties which descended 
anew upon the Kansas settlements. The column proceeded to the 
Platte River, whence, after refitting at Fort McPherson, it returned to 
search for the Indians who proved to be the " Dog Soldier" Cheyennes. 

May 18th, Indians ran off stock near Fort Bayard, New Mexico, 
were pursued by troops and their village destroyed. 

May 25th, the settlements in Jewell County, Kansas, were raided, six 
citizens killed and three women outraged. 



23 



May 26th, near the town of Sheridan, Kansas, Indians attacked a 
wagon train, wounded two teamsters and ran off three hundred mules. 

May 29th, Indians attacked Fossil Station, Kansas, killed two persons, 
wounded four, and at night threw a train from the track of the Kansas 
Pacific Railway. 

May 30th, on Salt Creek, Kansas, Indians killed a settler, attacked 
three couriers of the 7th Cavalry and chased them for ten miles. They 
also attacked three government teamsters, near Fort Hays, Kansas, and 
drove them into the post. 

May 31st, a government train was attacked on Rose Creek, Kansas; 
two soldiers and five Indians were reported wounded. 

June 1st, on Solomon River, Kansas, the camp of a detachment of the 
7th Cavalry was attacked, one soldier and one' Indian were reported 
wounded, and three Indian ponies were captured by the troops. On the 
same day, the settlements on the Solomon River were raided, thirteen 
men killed, houses burned and about one hundred and fifty head of stock 
run off. A detachment of cavalry followed the trail in pursuit, but with- 
out success. 

June 4th, Indians pulled up the track of the railroad at Grinnell Sta- 
tion, Kansas, but were repulsed by the military guard there. 

June 10th, on the Solomon River, Kansas, Indians attempted to stam- 
pede the stock at the camp of a scouting party, but were fired upon by 
the sentinels and escaped. On the same day the settlements on Asher 
Creek, Kansas, were raided and fifteen head of stock run off. The Indians 
were pursued ten miles by a party of cavalry, were attacked and the 
stolen stock recovered. 

June 11th, on the Solomon River, Indians attacked the flankers of an 
artillery command under Captain Graham, 1st Artillery, but were routed 
and pursued. 

June 12th, on the Solomon, some cavalry struck and pursued the trail 
of a band which had been depredating upon that stream, but did not suc- 
ceed in overtaking the Indians. At Edinburg, Kansas, Indians ran off 
twenty head of cattle, were pursued and the stock recovered. The set- 
tlements on the Solomon were again raided, about ten persons killed and 
some two hundred and fifty head of stock run off. 

June 19th, near Sheridan, Kansas, a surveying party, escorted by a 
detachment of the 7th Cavalry were attacked; the escort had two men 
wounded, but repulsed the Indians with a loss of four killed and twelve 
wounded. The same day Indians attacked a government train near Fort 
Wallace, Kansas, and drove it into the post; troops from the garrison 
pursued the Indians, capturing one pony; no casualties. 

June 20th, at Scandinavia, Kansas, the settlement was raided by 
Indians; they were pursued by a detachment of cavalry and one Indian 
killed. 



June 26th, Indians dashed into the town of Sheridan, Kansas, killed 
one man and pursued another who, however, escaped. 

These depredations were doubtless mostly committed by the large 
band which had been fought by General Carr's command, on the Beaver 
and other streams, in May. This column of seven troops 5th Cavalry, 
having refitted at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, returned, with three 
mounted companies of Pawnees, to the vicinity of the Beaver and Solo- 
mon, found several trails of the Indians and followed them until they 
united upon the Republican River, not far from the scene of Forsyth's 
severe fight the preceding September. 

July 5th, three troops of the 5th Cavalry, and one company of Pawnee 
scouts, from this column, under the command of Major W. B. Royall, 5th 
Cavalry, struck a war party, not far north of the Republican, killed three, 
wounded several and the balance escaped; the troops returned to the 
camp of the main column on the Republican. 

July 8th, a detachment of four men, Troop " M," 5th Cavalry, in com- 
ing back to the camp of General Carr's command, were attacked by 
Indians; Corporal Kyle, in charge of this party, made a very gallant 
defense, wounding two of the Indians and succeeding in reaching the 
camp. A dash was made into the camp, about midnight, by Indians 
attempting to stampede the herd; one of the Pawnee sentinels was 
wounded but the Indians were driven off without other loss to the com- 
mand. The next day the trail of the Indians was pursued rapidly, the 
wagons dropped with an escort, and on 

July 11th, the main village was completely surprised on " Summit 
Springs," a small tributary of the South Platte, in Colorado. Seven 
troops of the 5th Cavalry and three companies of mounted Pawnee 
scouts charged the village which, with its contents, was captured and 
burned. Fifty-two Indians were killed, an unknown number wounded, 
and seventeen captured, among the killed being " Tall Bull," the chief 
of the band. Two hundred and seventy-four horses, one hundred and 
forty-four mules, quantities of arms and ammunition and about 81,500 in 
U. S. money, were among the more important items of the extensive cap- 
tures. So perfect was the surprise and so swift the charge, over a dis- 
tance of several miles, that the Indians could do little but spring upon 
their ponies and fly, and the casualties to the troops were only one sol- 
dier wounded, one horse shot and twelve horses killed by the hot and 
exhausting- charge. In the Indian camp were two unfortunate white 
women captives from the Kansas settlements, a Mrs. Alderdice and a 
Mrs. ^Yiechell. The former had a baby whom the Indians had strangled. 
After enduring the saddest miseries, whilst prisoners, at the very moment 
of rescue by the troops, both women were shot by the Indians. Mrs. Aider- 
dice was found dead, with her skull crushed in; Mrs. AYiechell was shot in 
the breast, but the bullet was extracted from her back by the surgeon, 



25 



Dr. Tesson. Mrs. Alderdice was laid in a grave dug where she perished, 
the troops assembled and the burial service read over her by an officer. 
With such care as the troops could afford Mrs. Wiechell whilst on the 
march, she was carried to Fort Sedgwick, Colorado, where she eventually 
recovered, the soldiers turning over the captured money to this unhappy 
woman who had seen her husband murdered and mutilated, her home and 
friends destroyed and had herself, according to her own pitiful and 
broken story, been the victim of miseries almost too awful for descrip- 
tion. 

July 10th to July 17th, in New Mexico, upon the stage route the 
coaches were attacked three times in one week, the Indians capturing all 
the mails, robbing the passengers and killing ten persons in all. 

July 25th, troops struck the trail of hostile Indians near Fort Stanton, 
New Mexico, pursued the savages to their village, totally destroyed it, and 
recaptured three stolen mules, the Indians escaping amongst the canons; 
no casualties. 

July 27th, troops pursued a band of Indians who had committed 
depredations in New Mexico, overtaking and charging the savages, 
wounding three of them, capturing three Indian ponies and recovering 
some stolen stock. 

August 2d, the column of the 5th Cavalry with three companies of Paw- 
nee scouts, which had struck Tall Bull's camp at " Summit Springs," July 
11th, having refitted at Fort Sedgwick, Colorado, started out again under 
command of Colonel Royall, 5th Cavalry, to hunt for the Indians who 
had escaped from that fight. Just as the column was about camping, 
after its first day's march south of Fort Sedgwick, the Indians were 
struck, but escaped as night fell. The pursuit was taken up, next morn- 
ing, and the trail hotly followed for two hundred and twenty-five miles, 
to north of the Niobrara River, Dakota, where the chase had to be 
abandoned, the country being almost impassable, even without the train, 
and the horses of the cavalry being completely worn out. The Indians 
abandoned large quantities of camp equipage, which were destroyed, two 
mules and forty horses and ponies being captured by the command. 

August 3d, at Fort Stevenson, Dakota, Indians attempted to stampede 
the herd, but were defeated and pursued by the garrison, the Indians 
losing one horse; no casualties to the troops. 

August 9th, Indians destroyed one hundred and fifty yards of the tel- 
egraph line at Grinnell Station, Kansas, but were frightened off by the 
military guard at the station. 

August 15th, near San Augustine Pass, New Mexico, Troops " F," and 
" H," 3d Cavalry, under Captain F. Stanwood, 3d Cavalry, had a fight of 
which no details are given. 

August 19th, Colonel De Trobriand, 13th Infantry, commanding Fort 
Shaw, Montana, reported an attack by Piegan Indians upon a govern- 



26 



ment train from Camp Cooke; also the murder of a citizen named Clarke 
and the wounding of his son, near Helena, Montana. The teamsters with 
the train in the fight which took place on Eagle Creek, killed four and 
wounded two Indians, losing one man killed and twenty oxen. Subse- 
quently hostilities were carried on at different points in the vicinity, cat- 
tle carried off and white men murdered, the hostiles appearing to be 
Bloods, Blackfeet and Piegans. 

August 21st, Indians attacked Coyote Station, Kansas, but were 
repulsed by the military guard there; no casualties. 

September 5th, troops from Fort Stanton, New Mexico, pursued and 
routed a band of hostile Indians of whom it was estimated three were 
killed and seven wounded. The troops had two men wounded. 

September 12th, near Laramie Peak, Wyoming, an escort to a train 
had a fight in which one soldier was killed and one wounded. 

September 14th, near Little Wind River, Wyoming, Mr. James Camp 
and Private John Holt, Company " K," 7th Infantry, were killed near the 
Snake Reservation. On Popoagie River, Wyoming, a detachment of 
Troop " D," 2d Cavalry, under Lieutenant Stambaugh, had a fight in 
which two soldiers were killed. Two Indians were killed, ten wounded 
and one Indian pony captured. 

September 15th, near Whiskey Gap, Wyoming, a detachment of 
Company " B," 4th Infantry, under Lieutenant J. H. Spencer, had a fight 
with about three hundred Indians, one soldier being captured and doubt- 
less killed. 

September 17th, on Twin Creek, Wyoming, the United States mail 
escort had a fight with Indians. Near Fort Stanton, New Mexico, Indians 
ran off stock, were pursued, their village destroyed and three Indians 
wounded; no casualties to troops. 

At Point of Rocks, Wyoming, a stage was attacked and the driver 
killed. On Twin Creek, another escort party to the United States mail 
were attacked and driven into the mountains. 

September 20th, troops from Fort Bascom, New Mexico, pursued a 
band of Indians to the mountains, where they escaped with loss of much 
of their plunder. 

September 23d, troops from Fort Cummings, New Mexico, pursued 
marauding Indians, and after a long chase, recaptured thirty stolen 
horses. 

September 24th, Indians raided Mexican ranches near Fort Bayard, 
New Mexico. Troops followed the Indians to their village in the moun- 
tains, destroyed it with its contents and wounded three Indians; no casu- 
alties to the troops. 

September 26th, troops pursued a band of marauding Indians to their 
village in the San Francisco mountains, New Mexico, burned it, wounded 
two Indians and recovered some stolen sheep; no casualties to troops. The 



27 



same day, on Prairie Dog Creek, Kansas, a column consisting of Troops 
" B," " C," " F," " L," and " M," 5th Cavalry, Troops " B," « C," and 
" M," 2d Cavalry and two companies of Pawnee scouts, all under com- 
mand of General Duncan, was about encamping after a long day's march, 
when the advance guard of twenty cavalrymen, commanded by Lieutenant 
Volkmar, 5th Cavalry, struck a band of Indians which attempted to cut 
off Major North and the chief scout and guide, William Cody. The 
detachment charged the Indians and pursued them to their village which 
was hastily abandoned. Some of the Pawnee scouts joined in the 
chase, but night came on and the Indians escaped. One Indian was 
killed, one captured, and seven animals killed and captured, together 
with the entire village, consisting of fifty-six lodges which, with their 
contents, were destroyed on the following day. A portion of the column 
pursued for several days, but the Indians made no camp for ninety miles 
and the chase was abandoned. From an Indian prisoner it was ascer- 
tained that the band were all Sioux, under " Pawnee Killer" and " Whist- 
ler," both of whom had escaped from the Summit Springs fight on July 
11th. Some surveyor's instruments were also found in the Indian camp 
and identified as belonging to Mr. Nelson Buck's surveying party, 
consisting of about twelve persons, all of whom had been recently mur- 
dered and their camp destroyed, not far from the scene of the fight of 
September 26th. The band had come from the north about three months 
before and had attacked another surveying party about twenty miles 
south of the Platte, on August 27th. In their flight from the village, the 
prisoner stated that the band, numbering a hundred warriors, besides 
women and children, had abandoned everything but their arms and ani- 
mals, and had agreed not to stop until they reached the Sioux reserva- 
tion north of the Platte. 

September 29th, Indians committed murders and depredations near 
Fort Bayard, New Mexico. Troops from the post pursued the Indians for 
a week, destroyed their village and contents, killed three and wounded 
three Indians and captured three horses. One soldier was wounded in 
the fight. 

October 15th, troops pursued a band of Indians to the Mogollon 
Mountains, New Mexico, and pecaptured thirty stolen horses. 

October 23d, troops pursued a band of Indians to the Miembres 
Mountains, New Mexico, where they overtook and defeated them, killing 
three, wounding three, and .capturing three ponies and some supplies; 
one soldier was wounded. 

November 2d, near Fort Sill, Indian Territory, troops recovered a 
white captive from a band of Indians. 

November 18th, Lieutenant H. B. Cushing, 3d Cavalry, with a detach- 
ment of Troop " F," after a pursuit of two hundred miles, had a fight with 
Indians in the Guadaloupe Mountains, New Mexico, in which two soldiers 



28 



were wounded, the troops killing and wounding a number of Indians and 
recovering most of about one hundred and fifty head of stolen stock. 

December 2d, near Horse-Shoe Creek, Wyoming, about one hundred 
and fifty Indians attacked the mail escort of ten men, under Sergeant 
Bahr, Company " E," 4th Infantry, proceeding from Fort Fetterman to 
Fort Laramie. One soldier was killed and several Indians reported 
killed and wounded. The same day and vicinity, the mail escort of 
ten men, en route from Fort Laramie to Fort Fetterman, was attacked 
and two men wounded. 

December loth, Indians attacked Bunker Hill Station, Kansas, but 
were repulsed by the military guard. 

December 26th, in the Guadaloupe Mountains, New Mexico, a detach- 
ment of Troop " F," 3d Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Cushing, 
had a fight in which Lieutenant Franklin Yeaton, 3d Cavalry, received 
severe wounds from the effects of which he afterwards died. The same 
detachment had another fight, 

December 30th, on Delaware Creek, New Mexico, no details of which 
are given. 



1 8 7 O. 



On the 27th of September, 1869, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs 
for Montana, officially reported to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
renewed depredations by Indians, supposed to be Blackfeet, near Helena, 
Montana. A citizen named James Quail, having lost a quantity of horses 
and mules, went to hunt for them. His body was found pierced with 
arrows and horribly mutilated. Nine Indians were seen, a few days 
before, driving off stock from that direction, and within the preceding 
two months over four hundred horses and mules had been stolen. These 
papers were all referred by the War Department to the Division Com- 
mander for action, and it was resolved, as soon as winter should set in 
and the Indians be unable to move, to send a force from Fort Ellis or 
Fort Shaw and strike them a hard blow. The project for punishing this 
band, numbering about fifteen hundred, (men, women and children,) hav- 
ing been approved by the War Department, on January 19th a column, 
consisting of Troops " F," " G," " H," and " L," 2d Cavalry and a 
detachment of about fifty-five mounted infantry, under Brevet Colonel 
E. M. Baker, 2d Cavalry, left Fort Shaw, Montana, to strike the Piegan 
camp of " Mountain Chief," on the Marias River, Montana. 

January 23d, after a secret night march, the column completely sur- 
prised the camps of "Bear Chief " and "Big Horn," killing one hundred 
and seventy-three Indians, wounding twenty, capturing one hundred and 
forty women and children and over three hundred horses. Leaving a 
detachment in the camp to destroy the property, the column pushed down 
the river after the camp of " Mountain Chief," but his lodges were found 
deserted and were burned by the troops. The Indians scattered in every 
direction, but the weather was too severe to pursue them, so the column 
marched for the North West Fur Company's Station, arriving there on 
January 25th. Colonel Baker sent for the chiefs of the Bloods, had a 
consultation with them and obliged them to give up all the stolen stock 
in their possession. The column reached Fort Ellis again, February 6th, 
having made a march of about six hundred miles, in the coldest weather 
known for years, in the always severe climate of that region. In the 
attack on the Indian villages, the only loss to the troops was one man 
killed. 

March 21st, at Eagle Tail Station, Kansas, Indians attacked a railroad- 
working party but were driven off by the military guards; no casualties. 



30 



April 6th, on Bluff Creek, Kansas, a government train and escort were 
attacked by Indians who were driven off with a loss of three wounded, 
but one hundred and thirty mules were stampeded. 

April 23d, a railroad- working party in Kansas were attacked by 
Indians who were repulsed by the military guards; no casualties. 

May 4th, near Miner's Delight, Wyoming, Troop " D," 2d Cavalry, 
Captain D. S. Gordon commanding, had a severe fight with a band of 
Indians, in which seven Indians were killed and one wounded. First 
Lieutenant Charles B. Stambaugh, 2d Cavalry, and one enlisted man 
were killed. 

May 16th, Indians made a concerted attack along the Kansas Pacific 
Railroad for a distance of thirty miles, killing ten persons and running 
off about three hundred animals. A troop of cavalry pursued the Indians 
to the Republican River, Nebraska, but without success. 

May 17th, Sergeant Leonard and four men of Troop " C," 2d Cavalry, 
were attacked by about fifty Indians, on Spring Creek, Nebraska. The 
party succeeded in driving off the Indians who lost one killed and seven 
wounded. 

May 18th, Indians attacked Lake Station, Colorado, and were pursued 
bv a party of cavalry, but without success. 

May 21st, Hugo Station, Colorado, was attacked by Indians who 
were, however, repulsed. 

May 28th, near Camp Supply, Indian Territory, Indians attacked a 
train, stampeded all the mules, and killed one man. The same day they 
ran off a quantity of stock near that post and killed another man. 

May 31st, Carlysle Station, Kansas, was attacked by Indians; they 
were repulsed by the military guard who had two men wounded. The 
Indian loss, estimated, was three wounded. The same day, on Beaver 
Creek, Kansas, a detachment of Company " B," 3d Infantry, under Ser- 
geant Murray, had a fight in which one man was killed and one wounded. 

June 1st, Indians raided the settlements on Solomon River, Kansas. 
They were pursued by a troop of the 7th Cavalry and four Indians 
wounded. 

June 3d, the mail station at Bear Creek, Kansas, was attacked by 
Indians who were repulsed by the military guard, after a severe fight in 
which two soldiers were killed and one wounded. Five Indians were 
killed and ten w T ounded. At other places in the Department of the Mis- 
souri, the same day, a Mexican was killed and scalped, a train was 
attacked, a teamster killed and forty mules stampeded, and Captain 
Arm-es, 10th Cavalry, being separated from his escort, was attacked and 
chased, but escaped. 

June 6th, near Fort Selden, New Mexico, the Chief Engineer Officer, 
District of New Mexico, whilst surveying near that post, was attacked 
and two mules captured. Troops from the post pursued the Indians 



31 



who, however, escaped. The same day, near Camp Supply, Indian Ter- 
ritory, an attack on a train was repulsed. The same night Indians again 
attacked this train and were driven off. They also captured thirteen 
mules from a citizen train, near the post. Two Indians were wounded. 

June 8th, near Camp Supply, Indian Territory, the United States mail 
escort was attacked by Indians who were repulsed with a loss of three 
killed and five wounded; one soldier was wounded. On the same road, a 
government train guarded by a troop of cavalry, was attacked by 
Indians who were repulsed after a severe fight, in which three soldiers 
were wounded. Three Indians were killed and their wounded were esti- 
mated at ten. Between Fort Dodge and Camp Supply, Indian Territory, 
Troops "F," and " H," 10th Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Boda- 
mer, 10th Cavalry, had a fight in which two soldiers and three Indians 
were wounded. The same day Indians made an attack near Fort 
McPherson, Nebraska, were pursued by Trodp " I," 5th Cavalry, under 
Lieutenant Thomas and their camp attacked and destroyed, the Indians 
escaping. 

June 11th, near Bunker Hill Station, Kansas, cavalry couriers carry- 
ing dispatches were attacked and chased into the station. Near Camp 
Supply, Indian Territory, Indians attempted to stampede the horses at 
the cavalry camp. They were pursued by Troops "A," " F," " H," " I," 
and " K," 10th Cavalry, and Companies " B," " E," and " F," 3d Infantry, 
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. D. Nelson, 3d Infantry, were 
attacked, six Indians killed and ten wounded. Three soldiers were 
wounded and two cavalry horses killed. Near Grinnell Station, Kansas, 
a train escorted by cavalry was attacked by Indians who were repulsed 
after a fight of three hours; no casualties. 

June 13th, near Grinnell, Kansas, Indians attacked a railroad-working 
party but were repulsed by a detachment of cavalry; three Indians were 
killed and ten wounded. 

June 14th, a battalion of 7th Cavalry encountered a band of Indians 
on the Republican River, Kansas. The advance trdbp attacked the 
Indians who, however, escaped with a loss of one pony killed. 

June loth, near Fort Bascom, New Mexico, Indians plundered a 
ranch, outraging, killing and scalping a woman, and stealing five horses 
belonging to the post trader. The Indians were fired upon by the guard, 
but escaped. 

June 16th, on Mulberry Creek, Kansas, Indians killed three wood 
choppers, horribly mutilating their bodies. 

June 21st, near Carson, Colorado, Indians attacked a Mexican train 
and killed five teamsters. Cavalry pursued the next day, but without 
success. 

June 25th, near Medicine Bow, Wyoming, a detachment of Troop 



32 



"I," 2d Cavalry, under Lieutenant C. T. Hall, had a fight with Indians; 
no details given. 

June 27th, at Pine Grove Meadow, Wyoming, a detachment of Troop 
"A," 2d Cavalry, under Lieutenant R. H. Young, 4th Infantry, attacked 
a band of about two hundred Indians in the mountains. One soldier was 
wounded and fifteen Indians reported killed. The detachment not being 
strong enough to dislodge the Indians, the latter escaped. 

In August, a detachment of cavalry struck a band of Indians on the 
Washita River, Indian Territory, killing three and wounding ten Indians. 
Two soldiers were killed and five wounded. 

October 6th, near Looking Glass Creek, Nebraska, Troop " K," 2d 
Cavalry, Captain J. Egan, had a fight in which one Indian was killed. 

October 16th, in the Guadaloupe Mountains, New Mexico, Troop " B," 
8th Cavalry, Captain W. M. McCleave, had a fight in which one Indian 
was killed and eight captured. 

October 30th, eighteen miles from Fort Stanton, New Mexico, Indians 
stampeded fifty-nine mules from a train. Cavalry pursued for two hun- 
dred and fifty-five miles, destroyed the Indian village, recovered the 
mules and captured three squaws. 

November 10th, near Carson, Colorado, Indians stampeded sixty-eight 
mules from a Mexican train. 

November 18th, Indians attacked Lowell Station, Kansas, and killed 
one man. 

November , in the Guadaloupe Mountains, New Mexico, a detach- 
ment of Troop "A," 8th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Pendleton Hunter, 
captured nine Indians. 



18 7 1. 



February 17th, near Fort Bayard, New Mexico, Indians raided the 
ranches, murdered the settlers and ran off stock. Troops pursued the 
Indians to the mountains, burned their village, destroyed its contents and 
recovered many of the stolen animals. One soldier was killed and two 
wounded; of the Indians fourteen were reported killed and twenty 
wounded. 

February 26th, near Grinnell, Kansas, Indians attacked a hunter's 
camp, burned it and ran off the stock. 

March 18th, near Fort Dodge, Kansas, Indians made repeated attacks 
upon a government train, three men being killed and five Indians 
wounded in the various attacks. 

April 30th, Apache Indians from Arizona depredated in Colorado and 
killed, altogether, twenty persons. 

May 2d, Apaches committed depredations near Fort Selden, New 
Mexico. A troop of cavalry pursued them for two hundred and eighty 
miles but without success. 

May 3d, near Cimmaron, New Mexico, Indians raided the settlements, 
killed three persons and ran off about nine hundred and fifty head of 
stock. Troops pursued, captured twenty-two Indians and recovered 
seven hundred and fifty-seven head of the stolen animals. 

May 11th, Major Price, with a squadron of the 8th Cavalry, pursued a 
band of marauding Navajoes, in New Mexico, captured two prominent 
chiefs and recovered a large number 'of stolen animals. 

May 12th, Indians ran off stock near Red River, Texas. Troops from 
Fort Sill, Indian Territory, pursued and defeated the Indians who lost 
three killed and four wounded; no casualties to the troops. 

May 15th, Indians stampeded twenty-two mules from a government 
train in New Mexico. 

May 17th, Indians attacked a train on Red River, killing seven per- 
sons, wounding one and running off forty-one mules. Going to Fort Sill, 
Indian Territory, they publicly avowed the deed in the presence of 
General Sherman and the post commander, whereupon the leaders, 
" Satan ta" and " Satank," were arrested and placed in irons. Their fol- 
lowers resisted, when one Indian was killed and one soldier wounded. 

May 24th, on Birdwood Creek, Nebraska, a detachment of 5th Cav- 
alry, under Lieutenant E. M. Hayes, captured six Indians. 



34 



May 29th, in the Department of the Missouri, cavalry pursued a band 
of Indians and recaptured five hundred stolen animals. 

June 28th, near Larned, Kansas, Indians ran off fourteen horses; near 
Pawnee Fork, Kansas, they also stole seventy mules. 

July 2d, Fort Larned, Kansas, was attacked by Indians who were 
repulsed by the garrison; no casualties. 

August 18th, Indians killed a settler and ran off his stock, twelve 
miles from Fort Stanton, New Mexico. Troops pursued, but without 
success. 

September 19th, a small detachment of troops was attacked by Indians 
near Red River, Indian Territory. One soldier was wounded, two 
Indians killed and three wounded. 

September 22d, near Fort Sill, Indian Territory, Indians killed two 
citizen herders and ran off about fifteen head of stock. 



1872. 



February 9th, on the North Concho River, Texas, Indians attacked a 
detachment of three men belonging to Troop "B," 4th Cavalry, com- 
manded by Captain Rendlebrock, but no casualties were reported. 

March 27th, near Fort Concho, Texas, a detachment of Troop " I," 
4th Cavalry, under Sergeant Wilson, were attacked by Indians of whom 
two were killed, three wounded and one captured, together with nineteen 
horses. 

March 28th, a band of Indian and Mexican thieves were attacked by 
a detachment of cavalry near Fort Concho, Texas; two Indians were 
killed, three wounded and one captured. 

April 20th, Troops " A," and " H," 9th Cavalry, under Captain M. 
Cooney, 9th Cavalry, attacked a band of hostile Indians near Howard's 
Wells, Texas, killing six Indians. Lieutenant F. R. Vincent, 9th Cavalry, 
was mortally wounded. 

April 21st, Troop " C," 4th Cavalry, Captain J. A. Wilcox, were 
attacked by Indians in Texas and lost fourteen horses and two mules. 

April 26th, Troop "B," 3d Cavalry, Captain C. Meinhold, attacked a 
war party of Indians on South Fork of Loup River, Nebraska, killing- 
three Indians. 

May 6th, at Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, a small detachment of 
Troops " E," and " K," 8th Cavalry, under Lieutenant J. D. Stevenson, 
were attacked by a band of Ute Indians, one soldier being killed and one 
wounded, the Indians losing one killed and one wounded. 

May 12th, between Big and Little Wichita Rivers, Texas, a detach- 
ment of the 4th Cavalry, under Captain J. A. Wilcox attacked a band of 
Kiowas, killing two Indians; one soldier was wounded. 

May 19th, twenty-five miles from Fort Belknap, Texas, Kiowas 
attacked a party of citizens, killing one of them; two Indians were killed 
and two wounded. 

May 20th, a detachment of the 9th Cavalry and eight Indian scouts, 
under Lieutenant G. Valois, 9th Cavalry, attacked a small band of Kick- 
apoos on La Pendencia, Texas. 

May 22d, between Fort Dodge, Kansas, and Fort Supply, Indian Ter- 
ritory, a detachment of Troop " E," 6th Cavalry, acting as couriers, had 
one man killed and one wounded by Indians. 

May 23d, on Lost Creek, Texas, a detachment of the 4th Cavalry 



36 



under Captain E. M. Heyl, were attacked by Comanches and had one 
man and one horse killed. 

June loth, a detachment of Company " H," 11th Infantry, under Cor- 
poral Hickey, killed two Indians in a fight which occurred at Johnson's 
Station, Texas. 

August 14th, near Pryor's Fork, Montana, a column consisting of 
Troops " F," " G," " H," aud " L," 2d Cavalry and Companies " C," " E," 
" G," and " I," 7th Infantry, commanded by Major E. M. Baker, 2d Caval- 
ry, were attacked by several hundred Sioux and Cheyennes. One soldier 
was killed and one citizen and three soldiers were wounded; two Indians 
were killed and ten wounded, most of them mortally. 

August loth, on Palo Duro Creek, New Mexico, Troop " B," 8th Cav- 
alry, Captain W. M. McCleave, was attacked by a war party of Indians; 
one soldier was wounded and four Indians killed and eight wounded. 

August 16th, near Yellowstone River, Montana, an expedition com- 
manded by Colonel D. S. Stanley, 22d Infantry, was attacked by a large 
body of Indians. 

August 17th, on the Yellowstone River, Montana, one man of Troop 
"L," 2d Cavalry, Captain L. Thompson commanding, was reported 
wounded by Indians. 

x\ugust 18th, at mouth of Powder River, Montana, Companies " D," 
"F," and " G," 22d Infantry, Colonel D. S. Stanley commanding, had a 
fio-ht with Indians and ao;ain on August 21st and 22d, on O'Fallon's 
Creek, Montana. 

August 26th, a war party of about one hundred and twenty-five Sioux 
attacked a detachment of one Sergeant and six privates of the 6th Infan- * 
try and two Ree scouts, twelve miles from Fort McKeen, (afterwards 
known as Fort A. Lincoln,) Dakota; the two Ree scouts were killed. 

September — , Troop " B," 2d Cavalry, Lieutenant Randolph Nor- 
wood, attacked a war party of Indians between Beaver Creek and Sweet- 
water, Wyoming, killing one Indian. 

September 19th, a detachment of one Sergeant and seven men, 4th 
Cavalry and two Tonkawa scouts attacked about fifty Comanche Indians 
in Jones County, Texas, killing one Mexican thief and recapturing eleven 
stolen horses. 

September 29th, Colonel R. S. Mackenzie, with Troops "A," " D," 
" F," " I," and "L," 4th Cavalry, attacked a village of about two hundred 
lodges of Comanches near north Fork of Red River, Texas, destroyed the 
same with its contents, killed twenty-three warriors and captured between 
one hundred and twenty and one hundred and thirty prisoners. One 
enlisted man was killed and three wounded, together with a number of 
cavalry horses killed and wounded. A large number of horses and mules 
were captured from the Indians. 



37 



October 2d, about three hundred Sioux attacked Fort McKeen, (Fort 
A. Lincoln,) Dakota, wounding one and killing three Ree scouts. 

October 3d, in Jones County, Texas, a detachment of Tonkawa 
scouts made an attack upon a camp of Comanches; no details given. 

October 3d and 4th, near Heart River, Dakota, Lieutenant E. Crosby, 
17th Infantry, Lieutenant L. D. Adair, 22d Infantry and one civilian 
whilst hunting were attacked and killed by Sioux Indians. 

October 14th, Fort McKeen, (Fort A. Lincoln,) Dakota, was again 
attacked by a large body of Sioux. Troops from the garrison, consisting 
of one company 6th Infantry and eight Ree scouts attacked the Indians, 
killing three of them and losing two enlisted men killed. 

December ()th, near the Rio Grande, Texas, Sergeant Bruce and six 
men, 9th Cavalry, attacked a band of Mexican cattle thieves and recap- 
tured fifty-nine head of stolen cattle. 

During the year 1872, no general Indian war took place in the Divi- 
sion, but the number of murders and depredations committed by small 
war parties in various places was greater than during the preceding year. 
The line of frontier settlements had steadily advanced during the year, 
especially in Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Dakota, gradually absorb- 
ing the country which only a year or two before was in the possession of 
the Indians, and the trans-continental railway lines were progressing 
rapidly westward through the Division. The Northern Pacific Railroad 
had reached the Missouri River about the close of the year, the actual 
surveys and locations for the roadway being made as far west as the 
mouth of the Powder River, two hundred miles beyond the Missouri. 
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was extended as far west 
as Fort Dodge, Kansas, in its progress up the valley of the Arkansas, 
while surveying parties for the Southern Pacific Railway were engaged 
in locating the line of that road in both directions from the vicinity of 
El Paso. For the protection of the surveyors and the construction par- 
ties upon all these lines, a considerable force of troops was necessary as 
escorts, and minor engagements between Indians and these small detach- 
ments were of repeated occurrence. The guarding of the Rio Grande 
frontier against the incursions of border thieves consisting of Mexicans, 
half-breeds and Indians, also furnished occasion for considerable activity 
on the part of the troops in that portion of the Division, involving con- 
stant watchfulness and much patient endurance. 



1 



18 7 3. 



During the year 1873, the depredations of raiding parties of Mexican 
thieves, Indians and half-breeds in the vicinity of the Rio Grande con- 
tinued, as did also the attacks by Indians upon the military posts and 
field escort detachments guarding the surveying and construction parties 
engaged upon the lines of railway. 

April 30th, Lieutenant Harmon, with eleven men of the 10th Cavalry, 
attacked a band of Mexican thieves about seven miles south east of Fort 
Sill, Indian Territory, and recaptured thirty-six horses. 

May 7th, about one hundred Sioux attacked the post of Fort A. Lin- 
coln, Dakota, (previously known as Fort McKeen,) garrisoned by Com- 
panies " B," and u C," 6th Infantry and Company " H," 17th Infantry, 
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel W. P. Carlin, 17th Infantry. The 
Indians were driven off with a loss of one killed and three wounded. 

May 18th, Colonel R. S. MacKenzie, 4th Cavalry, with Troops "A," 
"B," U C," 41 E," "I," and " M," of his regiment and a detachment of 
Seminole scouts under Lieutenant Bullis, 24th Infantry, attacked and 
destroyed a village of fifty or sixty lodges of Kickapoos and Lipan 
Indians near Remolina, Mexico, killing nineteen Indians, taking forty 
prisoners and capturing fifty-six horses. The column marched at a trot 
or a gallop a distance of seventy -five miles, between one o'clock in the 
afternoon of the previous day and six o'clock in the morning of the day 
of the attack, in order to reach and surprise this village whose location 
had been reported. The pack train of supplies was dropped during this 
rapid march and for two days the troops were without other rations than 
a few crackers carried in their pockets. Among the prisoners taken was 
Costilietos, the principal chief of the Lipans. 

June 15th and 17th, Sioux Indians again made two separate attacks 
upon the post of Fort A. Lincoln, Dakota. The garrison, constituted as 
before described under Lieutenant Colonel Carlin, 17th Infantry, repulsed 
the attack, one Ree scout being wounded, three Sioux killed and eight 
wounded. 

July 12th, on Live Oak Creek, Indian Territory, Troop " L," 4th Cav- 
alry, Captain T. J. Wint commanding, attacked a war party of Indians. 

July 13th, near Canada Alamosa, New Mexico, a detachment of Troop 
"C," 8th Cavalry, commanded by Captain C. W. Chilson, from Fort 
McRae, New Mexico, had a fight with a band of Indians, one soldier 



40 



being- wounded and three Indians killed; twelve horses and one mule 
stolen by the Indians were recaptured. 

So bold and frequent had been the Indian attacks upon the military 
posts and the escorts to working parties on the railroads, in the Depart- 
ment of Dakota, that an additional regiment of cavalry, the 7th, was 
transferred to that Department from the Military Division of the South, 
for the purpose of following and punishing these Indians if they con- 
tinued their attacks. An expedition was organized under Colonel D. -S. 
Stanley, 22d Infantry, and a supply depot established near - Glendive 
Creek where it empties into the Yellowstone, the point at which it was 
expected the surveying parties of the Northern Pacific Railway would 
run their line across the river. The troops comprising the " Yellowstone 
Expedition" left Forts Rice and A. Lincoln, about the middle of June, 
returning to their stations in September after accomplishing the purposes 
intended, having had several engagements with the hostiles during this 
period. 

August 4th, Troops "A," and " B," 7th Cavalry, in advance, com- 
manded by Captain M. Moylan, had a fight with Indians near Tongue 
River, Dakota, one soldier being reported missing in action and doubtless 
killed. Later in the same day the main column of the 7th Cavalry, com- 
manded by Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Custer, were attacked by several 
hundred Sioux on the Yellowstone River, Montana; four enlisted men 
were reported killed and Lieutenant C. Braden, 7th Cavalry, and three 
enlisted men wounded. 

August 11th, the column of ten troops, 7th Cavalry, commanded by 
Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Custer, were again attacked by a large body of 
Sioux, on the Yellowstone River, Montana; four Indians were reported 
killed and twelve wounded. 

August 31st, near Pease River, Texas, Troops " E," and " I," 10th 
Cavalry, Captain T. A. Baldwin, were attacked by a war party of Indians; 
one Indian was wounded. 

September 30th, the same troops under Captain Baldwin attacked a 
band of hostiles at Mesquit Flats, Texas, recapturing nine stolen horses. 

September 18th, Troops " K," and " E," 2d Cavalry, Captain J. Egan 
commanding, attacked a war party of Sioux Indians on the north Laramie 
River, capturing eighteen horses and mules. 

September — , Troop " H," 8th Cavalry, Lieutenant H. J. Farnsworth, 
had a fight with Indians at Sierra San Mateo, New Mexico, killing two 
Indians. 

October 1st, in the Guadaloupe Mountains, New Mexico, Troop " C," 
8th Cavalry, Captain G. W. Chilson, had a fight with Indians, killing 
three of them and wounding one. The same day, at Central Station, 
Texas, Sergeant Mew, with a detachment of Company " K," 25th Infan- 
try, had a fight with Indians. At Camp Colorado, Texas, a detachment 



41 



consisting of a Sergeant and thirteen men were attacked by a party of 
Comanches, one Indian being wounded. 

October 25th, Lieutenant J, B. Kerr and twenty-five men of the 6th 
Cavalry attacked and captured a party of eight cattle thieves near Little 
Cabin Creek, Texas. Seventy horses and two hundred head of cattle 
stolen by the thieves were recaptured by the detachment. 

December 5th, Lieutenant E. S. Turner with a detachment of the 10th 
Cavalry assisting a Sheriff, overtook a band of twenty cattle thieves on 
Elm Creek, Texas, killed four of the thieves, captured sixteen of them 
and recovered about one thousand head of stolen cattle. 

December 9th, Troop " B," 4th Cavalry, Lieutenant C. S. Hudson, 
had a fight with Indians on the west Fork of the Nueces River, Texas. 

December 10th, near Kickapoo Springs, Texas, a detachment of forty- 
one men of the 4th Cavalry and nine Seminole scouts, commanded by 
Lieutenant C. L. Hudson, attacked a war party of Indians killing nine, 
wounding several and recapturing eighty-one stolen horses; one soldier 
was wounded. 

December 27th, Corporal Wright, with a detachment of the 25th 
Infantry, had a fight with Indians on Deep Red Creek, Indian Territory; 
one Indian was wounded. 

December 31st, a detachment of a Sergeant and three privates, Com- 
pany " B," 25th Infantry, were attacked by about fifteen Indians at 
Eagle Springs, Texas; one Indian was wounded. 



18 7 4. 



During the year 1874 the northern portion of the Division, the Depart- 
ment of Dakota, enjoyed comparative quiet. In that department were 
located the majority of the hostile bands of Sioux, some of them on reser- 
vations along the Missouri River, some on Milk River farther north near 
the British boundary and others roaming over the valleys of the Big 
Horn, Yellowstone and Powder Rivers, occasionally coming into Red 
Cloud's or Spotted Tail's Agencies to draw rations and other supplies. 
Occasionally they made a dash about Fort Lincoln to steal stock, or a 
raid into Montana, with attacks once in a while upon weak bands of 
friendly Indians, such as the Mandans and Rees. This condition of 
affairs was possibly owing to the limited extent of exposed frontier in the 
Department of Dakota, which compelled the Indians there to seek for 
plunder and scalps in the Department of the Platte, south of them, where 
the frontier settlements were much more progressed and exposed. 

In order to better control the Indians making these raids, for two or 
three years it was recommended to establish a large military post in the 
country known as the Black Hills, so that by holding an interior point in 
the heart of the Indian country, the troops could threaten the villages 
and stock of the Indians if the latter raided the settlements. With the 
consent of the President, the Honorable Secretary of War, the General 
of the Army and the Honorable Secretary of the Interior, the latter hav- 
ing exclusive control of Indian affairs, the Division Commander was 
authorized to make a military reconnoissance into the country about which 
only dreamy stories had hitherto been told. Fort Laramie, Wyoming, 
about one hundred miles from the Black Hills, was first selected as the 
point from which to fit out the expedition, but after two visits in person 
to that post, the Division Commander found the temper of the Indians in 
that vicinity such that an expedition from there would probably provoke 
hostilities, so attention was turned to Fort A. Lincoln, at the end of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, as the next most suitable point of departure, 
though the distance was much greater than from Fort Laramie. General 
Terry was directed to organize a strong expedition and place it under 
the command of Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Custer, 7th Cavalry, who was 
regarded as especially fitted for such an undertaking. The reconnoissance 
was eminently successful, the country of the Black Hills was found to 
contain plenty of fine timber, considerable good soil and an abundance of 



44 



water and grass. Gold was also discovered by the expedition, leading to 
a subsequent rush of miners and others who were with difficulty restrained 
from a general invasion of the Black Hills country. Upon the very satis- 
factory reports of this reconnoissance, the recommendation for the estab- 
lishment of a large military post in that section was earnestly renewed, 
but unfortunately for the subsequent history of Indian affairs, the con- 
struction of a post was not authorized until several years later, when 
disasters had occurred which might have been averted by that greater 
familiarity with the country which would have been acquired by the 
troops intended to be stationed there. 

February 5th, Lieutenant Colonel G. P. Buell, 11th Infantry, with 
Troops "G," and "D," 10th Cavalry, Company " F," 11th Infantry, and 
detachments of Companies "A," and " G," 11th Infantry, attacked a camp 
of Comanches on Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River, Texas, 
killed eleven Indians and captured sixty-five horses. One enlisted man 
was wounded in the fight. 

February 9th, Lieutenant L. H. Robinson, 14th Infantry, with Cor- 
poral Collins, while in charge of a lumber train returning from the gov- 
ernment saw-mill near Laramie Peak, Wyoming, were wantonly murdered 
by Indians. This seemed to be the signal for other depredations and for 
the commencement of great trouble at Red Cloud's and Spotted Tail's 
Agencies, located one hundred and twenty and one hundred and fifty 
miles, respectively, north east of Fort Laramie. At the request of the 
Interior Department and at great suffering and exposure, troops had to 
be sent in the dead of winter for the protection of the Indian Agents and 
their employes at these agencies. Upon the arrival of the troops the 
hostile bands withdrew from the agencies, leaving the peacefully inclined 
to remain under the protection of the soldiers, the hostiles fleeing north 
west towards the Powder River and Big Horn valleys, sending out young- 
warriors to steal stock and scalp people, whenever they could get a 
chance to do so without much danger to themselves. The acts of these 
bands seemed to fire the blood of the Northern Cheyennes and Arapa- 
hoes, two bands at that time affiliated with the Indians belonging to Red 
Cloud's Agency; they usually made their homes at "Pumpkin Butte," 
near the Powder River, or further west in the valley of the Big Horn, 
where the Wind River breaks through the Big Horn range of mountains. 
From this last named point they commenced a series of raids upon the 
friendly Shoshones near Camp Brown, (Fort Washakie,) in the Wind 
River country, stealing stock, also, from the settlers in the valleys of the 
Big and Little Popoagie Rivers. 

Up to the month of June, Indian attacks in the Departments of the 
Missouri and of Texas were infrequent. 

May 2d, between Red River and the Big Wichita, Texas, a detach- 



ment under command of Lieutenant Gilmore, 10th Cavalry, attacked a 
war party of Indians, but there were no casualties. 

May 18th, Captain Bentzoni, 25th Infantry, with a detachment attacked 
a war party of Indians in western Texas; no casualties. 

June 21st, Major C. C. Compton, 6th Cavalry, with a small escort of 
troops proceeding from Camp Supply, Indian Territory, to Fort Dodge, 
Kansas, were attacked by Indians on Buffalo Creek, Indian Territory, 
one enlisted man and one citizen being wounded. The same party were 
again attacked, 

June 24th, at Bear Creek redoubt, Indian Territory, but the Indians 
were repulsed with a loss of four killed and several wounded. 

Immediately following these attacks many horrible massacres occurred, 
perpetrated principally by Southern Cheyennes, assisted by Kiowas and 
Comanches, culminating in a general and determined attack upon some 
buffalo hunters who had a ranch on the main Canadian River, at Adobe 
Walls, located in what is known as the " Pan Handle" of Texas. The 
attack and defense at this place were desperate, lasting for several days, 
when the Indians withdrew with a heavy loss of life on their side. 

Before this attack, however, the Agent of the Arapahoes and South- 
ern Cheyennes had been compelled to abandon his post and many lives 
were lost in the vicinity of the agency, now known as Fort Reno. Small 
parties of hostiles had also made their appearance along the frontier line 
of settlements in southern Kansas and south eastern Colorado. 

To break up a rendezvous of the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 
discovered about ninety miles from Camp Brown, Wyoming, Captain A. 
E. Bates with Troop " B," 2d Cavalry and about one hundred and sixty 
friendly Shoshones, made a rapid march from that post and on 

July 4th, after a gallant fight, completely defeated the hostiles near 
Bad Water branch of the Wind River, in Wyoming. Twenty-six Indians 
were killed, over twenty wounded and two hundred and thirty ponies 
captured. The troops had four killed and six wounded, among the latter 
being Lieutenant R. H. Young, 4th Infantry. After this punishment 
these two bands of Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes moved to Pump- 
kin Butte and sent a delegation to Fort Fetterman, asking, with much 
bluster, whether the troops wanted war. The reply was " Yes," and that 
they would kill as many Indians as possible, unless the latter stopped 
their depredations and came into their agency. This the hostiles gen- 
erally concluded to do and lost no time in coming in. Small parties of 
Sioux remained out, however, plundering and killing a number of per- 
sons, until a small column of troops could be sent against them, when 
they disappeared. Numerous raids were also made upon the settlements 
in the north eastern part of Nebraska and upon the friendly Ponca 
Indians located in that vicinity, but the loss of life was very small, 
the Indians capturing, however, a large amount of stock. 



46 



July 13th, Captain Bates with Troop U B," 2d Cavalry, struck a war 
party of Indians near the Sweetwater, Wyoming, killed one Indian and 
captured seven horses. 

July 20th, in Palo Pinto County, Texas, a detachment of two officers, 
nine men and nine Tonkawa scouts under command of Lieutenant Colo- 
nel G. P. Buell, 11th Infantry, attacked a war party of Indians and cap- 
tured one horse. 

The Southern Cheyennes, Kiowas, Arapahoes and other bands in the 
Indian Territory, having inaugurated in June a series of attacks upon the 
settlers, as before described, had been in the habit of escaping pursuit and 
punishment, by flying into their agencies. On the 21st of July authority 
was received through the War Department, from the Department of the 
Interior, to punish these Indians wherever they might be found, even to 
following them upon their reservations set apart for them in the Indian 
Territory. General Pope, commanding the Department of the Missouri, 
was directed to push his troops into the field and Carry out these condi- 
tions as far as practicable. Several columns were accordingly started 
out in the Indian Territory with the object of finding and punishing the 
bands which had been committing atrocities in the Department of the 
Missouri. Among the earliest of the engagements which took place 
under the special authority to pursue Indians taking refuge upon reser- 
vations, was that which occurred 

August 22d, at the Wichita Agency, Indian Territory, when Troops 
" E," "H," and " L," 10th Cavalry and Company "I," 25th Infantry, 
under command of Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Davidson, 10th Cavalry, 
from Fort Sill, Indian Territory, had a severe fight with a band of hostile 
Comanches and Kiowas who had taken refuge with the friendly Indians 
located at the Wichita Agency. Four enlisted men were wounded and 
the Indians lost sixteen in killed and wounded. The hostiles attempted 
to burn out the agency and the camps of the friendly Indians, in which 
the troops were posted, but were defeated in their designs. 

A column consisting of eight troops of the 6th Cavalry and four com- 
panies 5th Infantry, with a section of artillery, commanded by Colonel 
N. A. Miles, 5th Infantry, was also advanced against the Indians from 
Camp Supply, Indian Territory, via the Antelope Hills. Another column, 
consisting of three troops of the 8th Cavalry and a couple of mountain 
howitzers, under Major W. R. Price, 8th Cavalry, from Forts Bascom and 
Union, New Mexico, moved down the main Canadian to join Colonel 
Miles at or near the Antelope Hills. 

August 30th, the column of Colonel Miles encountered the Indians 
near the headwaters of the Washita and kept up a running fight for sev- 
eral days, the Indians steadily falling back until they reached the hills, 
about eight miles from Salt Fork of Red River, where they made a stand 
but were promptly attacked, routed and pursued in a southwesterly direc- 



47 



tion, across the main Red River and out into the Staked Plains, with a 
loss of three killed, besides animals and camp equipage captured. The 
troops had one soldier and one civilian wounded. 

September 9th, Indians attacked Colonel Miles' supply train, escorted 
by about sixty men, commanded by Captain Lyman, 5th Infantry, on the 
Washita River, Texas, keeping it corraled there for several days until 
relief arrived from Camp Supply, Indian Territory. One enlisted man 
was killed, one soldier, a wagon-master and Lieutenant G. Lewis, 5th 
Infantry, were wounded. 

September 11th and 12th, near the Washita River, a detachment of 
two scouts and four soldiers from Colonel Miles' command, in endeavor- 
ing to communicate with that of Major Price, were attacked by Indians 
and four of the six wounded, one of the wounded dying in a hole in 
which the party desperately defended themselves for two days until 
relieved by troops in that vicinity. 

September 12th, the column under command of Major Price, 8th Cav- 
alry, had a fight with a considerable body of Indians between Sweetwater 
and the Dry Fork of the Washita, Texas. Two Indians were reported 
killed and six wounded; the troops had fourteen horses killed and 
wounded. The column pursued the Indians for seven or eight miles 
when the hostiles scattered in every direction; about twenty Indian 
ponies were captured in the pursuit. 

September 26th and 27th>Colonel R. S. MacKenzie with Troops "A," 
"D," "E," U F," "H," "I," and " K," 4th Cavalry, after repelling two 
Indian attacks, surprised five camps of Southern Cheyennes and their 
allies in a canon near Red River, Texas, destroyed over one hundred 
lodges and captured their entire outfit including over fourteen hundred 
horses and mules. One enlisted man was wounded and four Indians 
killed. 

October 9th, on Salt Fork of Red River, Texas, the scouts of a column 
consisting of Companies "A," "E," " F," " H," and "I," 11th Infantry, 
under Lieutenant Colonel Buell, 11th Infantry, struck a band of Kiowas, 
killed one of them and destroyed their camp. Pursuit was made for a 
considerable distance, the main column destroying several hundred lodges 
in various abandoned camps, but the Indians escaped northward. 

October 13th, near Gageby Creek, Indian Territory, a detachment of 
Navajoe scouts accompanying the column under Major Price, 8th Cav- 
alry, from New Mexico, attacked and dispersed a war party of Indians. 

October ]7th, about five miles north of the Washita, Indian Territory, 
Captain Chaffee with " I" Troop, 6th Cavalry, surprised an Indian camp 
and destroyed their entire outfit, the Indians escaping in great haste; no 
casualties occurred. 

An expedition having been fitted out from Fort Sill, Indian Territory, 
under command of Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Davidson, 10th Cavalry, 



48 



October 24th, upon Elk Creek, Indian Territory, Major G. W. Scho- 
field with his command of three troops of the 10th Cavalry, from General 
Davidson's column, surprised a Comanche Indian camp and charged it. 
The hostiles displayed a white flag and surrendered themselves as prison- 
ers; sixty-nine warriors, besides two hundred and fifty women and chil- 
dren, together with about fifteen hundred to two thousand horses were 
captured. The same day Captain Carpenter with two troops of the 10th 
Cavalry, from General Davidson's column, struck the trail of a band of 
about fifty Kiowas with two hundred head of stock. The Indians were 
pursued rapidly but scattered to escape capture, and on 

October 28th, over twenty warriors with their women, children and 
stock, surrendered themselves at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. General 
Davidson's expedition altogether captured or caused the surrender of 
ninety-one warriors and three hundred women and children, with about 
two thousand ponies, besides capturing or destroying several villages and 
much camp equipage. 

October—, Captain A. E. Hooker with Troops "E," and " K," 9th 
Cavalry, had a fight near the Canadian River, in the Pan Handle of 
Texas, killing one Indian. 

November 3d, Colonel R. S. Mackenzie with Troops "A," " D," " E," 
"F," "H," "I," " K," and " L," 4th Cavalry, had a fight with Indians on 
Las Lagunas Quatro, Texas, killing two Indians and capturing nineteen. 

November 6th, on McClellan Creek, Texas, Lieutenant H. J. Farns- 
worth with twenty-eight men of Troop " H," 8th Cavalry, had a fight with 
about one hundred Southern Cheyennes, killing from four to seven and 
wounding ten Indians;, one enlisted man was killed, four wounded and 
six cavalry horses killed. 

November 8th, near McClellan Creek, Texas, Lieutenant F. D. Bald- 
win, 5th Infantry, with a detachment consisting of Troop " D," 6th Cav- 
alry and Company " D," 5th Infantry, attacked a large camp of Indians, 
routing them with the loss of much of their property. Two little white 
girls, Adelaide and Julia Germaine, aged five and seven years, were 
rescued from these Indians. The children stated that two older sisters 
were still held captive by the Indians. The story of their woe and suffer- 
ing in captivity was pitiable in the extreme, not even their tender years 
sparing them from the most dreadful treatment. Their father, mother, 
brother and one sister were all murdered at the time the four sisters were 
captured. At the close of this campaign the other two sisters were 
rescued from the Indians and all four provided a comfortable home with 
the Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. General Miles became their 
guardian and Congress authorized the stoppage of an amount for the sup- 
port of the children from the annuities of their captors, the Southern 
Cheyennes. 

November 8th, Troops "B," "C," " F," and " H," 10th Cavalry, 



49 



detachments Companies "E," and "I," 11th Infantry and thirty Indian 
scouts, all under command of Captain C. D. Viele, 10th Cavalry, were 
detached from Colonel Davidson's column near McClellan Creek, Texas, 
to pursue the band, attacked by Lieutenant Baldwin the same day. Cap- 
tain Viele's command chased the Indians for a distance of ninety-six 
miles, having several slight skirmishes with the rear guard of Indians and 
capturing a number of ponies and mules, the latter packed, which the 
Indians had abandoned in the flight. 

November 28th, Captain C. A. Hartwell with Troops " C," " H," " K," 
and " L," 8th Cavalry, attacked a war party of Southern Cheyennes near 
Muster Creek, Texas, killed two Indians, wounded two and chased the 
band for twelve miles until sundown. 

December 2d, First Sergeant Dennis Ryan with twenty men of 
Troop " I," 6th Cavalry, discovered a band of Indians on Gageby Creek, 
Indian Territory, attacked and chased them for ten miles, killing and 
capturing from them fifty ponies, some of which were packed or saddled. 
The detachment also destroyed a large amount of Indian property. 

December 7th, Captain A. B. Keyes with Troop " I," 10th Cavalry, 
attacked a band of Southern Cheyennes on Kingfisher Creek, Texas, cap- 
turing thirceen warriors and the same number of squaws. 

December 8th, Lieutenant L. Warrington, with ten men of Troop " I," 
4th Cavalry, attacked a party of about fifteen Indians on Muchaque, 
Texas, killed two Indians, wounded one and captured one. 

December 28th, Troop " I," 10th Cavalry, Captain A. B. Keyes fol- 
lowed a band of Cheyennes for eighty miles to the North Fork of the 
Canadian River, and captured the entire band consisting of fifty-two 
Indians with seventy ponies. 



18 7 5. 



The military operations against the bands in the Indian Territory, 
described during the last half of the year 1874, were continued during 
the winter of that year and well into the spring of 1875. The force 
brought from New Mexico under Major Price, 8th Cavalry, was consoli- 
dated with that under Colonel Miles, and the whole expedition from the 
Department of the Missouri fell under the immediate command of the 
latter during the rest of the field operations. It consisted of eight troops 
of the 6th Cavalry under Majors Compton and Biddle, four troops of the 
8th Cavalry under Major Price, and four companies of the 5th Infantry. 
From July 21st, 1874, to February 12th, 1875, the whole of this force was 
actively and incessantly employed in scouting the entire section infested 
by the Indian Territory bands keeping the Indians so constantly on the 
move that they were unable to lay in any stock of provisions. This 
active work was continued by the troops upon the exposed and barren 
plains of that region, during the whole of a winter of unprecedented 
severity and as the season advanced the difficulty of supplying the neces- 
sary forage and subsistence increased so that no little hardship and pri- 
vation resulted, but the troops bore everything with fortitude and courage 
and without complaint. By extraordinary efforts enough supplies 
reached the troops to keep them in the field until their work was done 
and at length early in March, 1875, the Southern Cheyennes, completely 
broken down, gave up the contest and under their principal chief, Stone 
Calf, the whole body of that tribe, with a trifling exception, surrendered 
themselves as prisoners of war, restoring at the same time the two elder 
Germaine girls who had been captives among them for nearly eight 
months. In surrendering, the Indians gave up their horses, which were 
sold, and wittTthe proceeds were purchased herds of young beef cattle 
for the pastoral education of the Indians. Although the conditions of 
surrender required the Indians to deliver up their arms, only some 
guns and a large quantity of bows and arrows were turned in, the greater 
part of their more valuable fire-arms being hidden away where no search 
by the troops would be likely to find them. 

During the winter the Kiowas and Comanches, against whom the 
expeditions in the Department of Texas, under Colonels Mackenzie, 
Davidson and Buell had been compaigning with the most commendable 
energy, in co-operation with the column under Colonel Miles, went into 
Fort Sill, first in small parties and then in larger numbers, surrendering 



52 



there in like manner. By the month of June, 1875, the last of the bands 
absent from their agencies, the Quehada Comanches, came into Fort Sill, 
Indian Territory, where they surrendered themselves with large numbers 
of ponies and mules, to Colonel R. S. Mackenzie commanding at that 
post. 

Orders were received, when the Indians began to surrender, to select 
from among them the principal ringleaders who had incited or led bands 
of hostiles in the recent outrages, to be sent to the sea coast and there be 
kept in confinement for a time at least. Seventy-five men were accord- 
ingly picked out from the several tribes and were sent to St. Augustine, 
Florida. On April 6th, whilst shackling " Black Horse," one of the Chey- 
ennes who were thus to be disposed of, he broke from the guard and ran 
directly towards the camp of his people. He was pursued by Captain 
Bennett, 5th Infantry, with the guard, who fired upon and killed " Black 
Horse" whose escape seemed certain without this alternative. The shots 
being in the direction of the Indian camp, several passed beyond the 
escaping prisoner and wounded some persons there. After a volley of 
bullets and arrows upon the guard, in the greatest excitement, about one 
half of the Cheyenne tribe fled to the sand hills on the south side of the 
Canadian, opposite the agency. The troops, consisting of Captain Ben- 
nett's company of the 5th Infantry, with two troops of the 10th and one 
of the 6th Cavalry, all under command of Lieutenant Colonel T. H. Neill, 
6th Cavalry followed, but the Indians, well supplied with the fire-arms 
they had hidden in that vicinity, occupied a difficult hill and maintained 
themselves against the troops for several hours until nightfall. By night 
the troops had forced their way nearly to the crest of the hill occupied 
by the Indians, but at daylight it was found the enemy had fled during 
the night. Eleven Indians were found dead and nineteen soldiers were 
wounded. Troops from other posts in the vicinity were ordered to assist 
in the pursuit, and eventually most of the escaped Cheyennes gave them- 
selves up. 

January 16th, a detachment of troops under Lieutenant F. S. Hinkle, 
5th Infantry, after a short chase captured a party of four Cheyennes near 
the Smoky Hill River, Kansas, south east of Fort Wallace. 

January 26th, Colonel Edward Hatch, 9th Cavalry, reported an attack 
by about from twenty to forty cattle thieves, upon a detachment consist- 
ing of a Corporal and four men of Troop " G," 9th Cavalry, eighteen 
miles from Ringgold Barracks, Texas, two of the soldiers being killed. 
Colonel Hatch, with Troops " B," and " G," 9th Cavalry, captured a num- 
ber of suspicious characters, two of whom were wounded in the attack 
upon the detachment. A coroner's jury found nine Mexicans, seven of 
whom were among Colonel Hatch's prisoners, guilty of the murder of the 
soldiers. 

February 23d, Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Davidson, 10th Cavalry, 



53 



reported the capture of a band of Kiowas on Salt Fork of Red River, 
Texas. The prisoners consisted of sixty-five men and one hundred and 
seventy-five women and children, with about three hundred ponies and 
seventy mules which were also captured. Among the prisoners were 
" Lone Wolf," " Red Otter" and " Lean Bull ;" all surrendered uncondi- 
tionally with their arms and ponies. 

April 6th, at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency (now known as 
Fort Reno, Indian Territory,) took place the outbreak of the Cheyenne 
prisoners already described, and the attack upon them in an intrenched 
position, by the troops under command of Lieutenant Colonel T. H. Neill, 
6th Cavalry. 

A party of about sixty or seventy Cheyennes, consisting of the worst 
criminals of the tribe, those who had murdered the Germaine family and 
others, being afraid on that account to surrender with the rest, crossed 
the Arkansas River west of Fort Dodge and attempted to make their way 
to the Sioux country, north of the Platte. 

April 23d, a detachment of forty men under Lieutenant A. Henley, 
6th Cavalry, struck this band in the north Fork of Sappa Creek, south 
east of Fort Wallace, Kansas, cut oft 7 twenty-seven of them from their 
ponies and demanded their surrender. The Indians replied by a volley, 
when Lieutenant Henley's detachment attacked them and nearly 
destroyed the whole party, nineteen warriors, including two chiefs and 
a medicine man, being killed. Over one hundred and twenty-five ponies 
were captured and the Indian camp burned, the balance of the band 
escaping northward. Two enlisted men were killed. 

April 26th, on the Pecos River, Texas, Lieutenant Bullis, with a 
detachment of three men of the 24th Infantry, surprised and attacked a 
band of about twenty-five Comanches, killed three and wounded one. 

May 5th, Sergeant Marshall, with a detachment of Troop "A," 10th 
Cavalry, attacked a band of Indians at Battle Point, Texas, wounded one 
Indian and captured his pony. 

June 3d, Lieutenant J. A. McKinney, with a detachment of the 4th 
Cavalry, in pursuit of thieving Indians, overtook several Osages robbing 
a cattle herd on Hackberry Creek, Indian Territory. A Corporal and 
two men in advance attempted to arrest the Indians who began firing on 
the detachment and one Osage was killed. 

July 1st, on the Little Popoagie, Wyoming, First Sergeant Mitchell 
with a detachment Troop " D," 2d Cavalry, had a fight with Indians, kill- 
ing two of them. 

July 6th, the Ponca Agency, Dakota, was attacked by a band of from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred Sioux. Sergeant Danvers with a 
detachment of eleven men Company <; G," 1st Infantry, posted at the 
agency, loaded an old cannon with pieces of iron and with this impro- 



54 



vised ammunition drove off the attacking party in three assaults, when 
the enemy withdrew. 

July 7th, near Camp Lewis, Montana, a band of about fifty Indians 
ran off a quantity of horses. A detachment of Company " G," 7th Infan- 
try, under Lieutenant G. H. Wright, pursued the Indians, surprised and 
attacked them and recovered seven head of stolen horses. 

October 27th, Captain J. M. Hamilton with Troop " H," 5th Cavalry, 
from Fort Wallace, Kansas, had a fight with a band of Indians near the 
Smoky Hill River, Kansas; two Indians were killed and one soldier 
wounded. 

November 2d, Lieutenant A. Geddes, 25th Infantry, with two troops 
of the 10th Cavalry, attacked a band of Indians near the Pecos River, 
Texas, killed one and captured five. 

November 20th, a detachment of Troop " G," 3d Cavalry, under Lieu- 
tenant E. Crawford, had a fight with Indians near Antelope Station, 
Nebraska. 

A summary of the situation of affairs upon the Indian and the Rio 
Grande frontiers, is found in the following extract from the annual report 
of Lieutenant General P. H. Sheridan for 1875. 

" In the Department of Dakota, the military have had the double duty 
of protecting the settlements from the raids of hostile Indians, and the 
Black Hills country from occupation by miners attracted there by real or 
imaginary mineral wealth in the soil. The troops in the Department of 
the Platte have been mostly engaged in the same manner as those of the 
Department of Dakota. 

"I earnestly recommend some action which will settle this Black Hills 
question, and relieve us from an exceedingly disagreeable and embar- 
rassing duty. I feel quite satisfied that all the country south of the Yel- 
lowstone River, from the Black Hills of the Cheyenne as far west as the 
Big Horn Valley, and perhaps as far west as Clark's Fork of the Yellow- 
stone, is gold bearing, but as to the amount of the gold deposit I cannot 
say; it may be great, or it may be small. 

" This area is also, at many places, well timbered, has many beautiful 
valleys of rather high altitude, with good soil and abundance of running 
water. I make this statement from having studied this country for a 
long time and in order that my superiors who will, before long, have to 
deal with the question of the Black Hills, may be able to better appre- 
ciate the interests of all concerned, be they white or red. 

" The Sioux Indians, numbering about twenty-five thousand, now 
hold this extensive, and, perhaps, very valuable country, and in addition, 
the belt eastward from the base of the Black Hills of the Cheyenne to 
the Missouri River, which would make about ten thousand acres of land 
for the head of each family, and perhaps much more. 

"To meet the troubles which will originate from the Black Hills ques- 



55 



tion, to be in advance of them when they come, and be better able to 
deal with them, I directed, without expense to the Government, an 
exploration of the Yellowstone River last spring, and selected two sites 
for military posts, one at the mouth of the Bigf Horn, the other at the 
mouth of Tongue River, both in the valley of the Yellowstone. These 
stations can be supplied by steamboats and will have so important a bear- 
ing on the settlement of the Sioux Indian question, that I earnestly 
recommend that Congress be called upon to give authority for their 
establishment, and the necessary funds for their construction. 

" In the Department of the Missouri, the campaign against the Chey- 
ennes, Kiowas and Comanches, was finished early in the spring, and the 
ringleaders and worst criminals separated from the tribes and sent to 
Fort Marion, Florida. 

" Nearly all the troops in the Department of Texas, except those along 
the Rio Grande frontier, were engaged in this campaign. Those sta- 
tioned along the Rio Grande River, the boundary line between the 
United States and Mexico, have had the humiliating duty of attempting 
to protect our citizens and their property from raids by people of a 
foreign country, who come over the boundary in armed parties to steal 
cattle, and who do not hesitate to attack and kill our citizens, when 
necessary to accomplish their purposes. 

" The low stage of water in the Rio Grande and its great length — 
twelve hundred to fifteen hundred miles — makes the duty of protecting 
it difficult, in fact, almost impossible, with the few troops available for the 
purpose." 



18 7 6. 



January 22d, Lieutenant H. S. Bishop, with a detachment of seven- 
teen men, Troop " G," 5th Cavalry, pursued a band of Indians which 
had been stealing stock near Camp Supply, Indian Territory, overtook 
the Indians on the Cimmaron River, killed three and captured four, 
together with thirty-five ponies and two mules. 

February 21st, Major Brisbin, 2d Cavalry, with four troops 2d Cav- 
alry, a detachment of Company "C," 7th Infantry, a field-gun and fifteen 
citizens, numbering two hundred and twenty-one officers and men, left Fort 
Ellis, Montana, to march to the relief of a party of citizens, besieged by 
Indians, at the trading-post at Fort Pease, reaching there on March 4th. 
The origiual party had consisted of forty-six men who defended them- 
selves desperately in a stockade, until the relief column of troops 
arrived. Six persons had been killed, eight wounded and thirteen had 
escaped, by night, only nineteen being found left in the stockade, and 
these were brought off by the troops. 

In November, 1875, Indian Inspector E. C. Watkins, reported to the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the attitude of certain wild and hostile 
bands of Indians, under the leadership of various chiefs or head-men, 
who were roaming about Dakota and Montana. 

Some of these bands had never accepted the reservation system, 
would not recognize the authority of the Government, and insisted upon 
remaining wild and perfectly free from control. Of this class was " Sit- 
ting Bull," who was not a chief, but a " head-man," and whose imme- 
diate following did not exceed thirty or forty lodges. 

Among the Indians referred to, were some who had not only attacked 
settlers and emigrants, but who had also been in the habit of making- 
war upon the Mandans, Arickarees, and other tribes who were friendly 
to the whites. Inspector Watkins recommended, therefore, that troops 
should be sent into the country inhabited by these wild and roving 
bands, to punish and reduce them to subjection. His report, with the 
views of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, together with the recom- 
mendation of the Honorable.. Secretary of the Interior that these Indians 
be informed they must remove to reservations before January 31st, 1876, 
or in event of their failure to do so, by that date, that they would be 
turned over to the War Department, were all referred by the General 
of the Army to Lieutenant General Sheridan, December 13th, 1875. 



58 



Another chief or head-man, against whom military operations were 
contemplated, was " Crazy-Horse," an Ogallala Sioux, properly belong- 
ing to Red Cloud Agency, whose band comprised perhaps a hundred and 
twenty lodges, numbering about two hundred warriors. 

As Generals Terry and Crook commanded the Departments in which 
these Indians were located, the subject was submitted to them. 

General Terry's opinion was that Sitting Bull's band was encamped 
near the mouth of the Little Missouri, that it could be reached by a 
quick movement which might be decisive at that season of the year, and 
that he had sufficient troops to make such a movement. General Crook 
was of opinion that operations against the hostiles could be undertaken 
in his department whenever, in the opinion of the Indian Bureau, such 
action became necessary. 

On February 7th, by endorsement of the General of the Army upon 
a letter of the Honorable Secretary of the Interior, authority was 
received to commence operations against the hostiles. 

Meanwhile General Terry had learned that Sitting Bull's band was 
on the Dry Fork of the Missouri, some two hundred miles further west, 
instead of upon the Little Missouri, and on the 8th of February General 
Terry was directed to take such steps, with the forces under his com- 
mand, as would carry out the wishes of the Interior Department and the 
orders of the General of the Army. General Terry was also informed 
that General Crook would operate from the south, in the direction of the 
headwaters of Powder River, Pumpkin Buttes, Tongue River, Rosebud 
and Big Horn Rivers, frequented by Crazy-Horse and his allies, and that 
the lines of the two military departments would be disregarded by the 
troops until the object requested by the Secretary of the Interior was 
attained. 

Similar directions were given General Crook, and, as the Indian vil- 
lages were movable, no objective point could be fixed upon for concerted 
operations by the two distinct expeditions from the Departments of the 
Platte and Dakota. 

During the time these preparations were making, efforts were con- 
tinued to have the Indians come in to their agencies, settle down and be 
peaceable, but without avail. 

Immediately upon receipt of his instructions, General Crook com- 
menced concentrating at Fort Fetterman, the available cavalry of his 
command, consisting of about ten troops of the 2d and 3d Cavalry 
which, with two companies of infantry, moved out from that post March 
1st, in search of the hostiles, believed to be^located on the headwaters of 
Powder River, Tongue River, or the Rosebud. 

March 17th, the main part of the expedition, under Colonel J. J. Rey- 
nolds, 3d Cavalry, consisting of Troops " A," "B," " E," "I," and " K," 
2d Cavalry, with a detachment of Troop " A," and Troops " E," " F," 



59 



and " M," 3d Cavalry, attacked a large village of Sioux and Northern 
Cheyennes, near the mouth of Little Powder River, Montana, destroying 
all the lodges, one hundred and five in number, with ammunition and 
stores. A large herd of animals was also captured, but were subse- 
quently recovered by the hostiles. Four enlisted men were killed and 
Lieutenant Rawolle, 2d Cavalry, and five men wounded. The village 
was a perfect magazine of ammunition, war material and general sup- 
plies, and every evidence was found to prove these Indians in co-part- 
nership with those at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies, that 
the proceeds of raids upon the settlements had been taken into those 
agencies and supplies brought out in return. 

The command had suffered so much from the severity of the weather, 
the mercurial thermometer failing to register the intensity of the cold, 
that after the destruction of the village, the column returned to Fort 
Fetterman and the troops were distributed to their various winter stations 
for shelter. 

About the same time that General Crook was preparing to move, as 
described, General Terry projected an expedition against Sitting Bull's 
band, but before the 7th Cavalry could be fully concentrated at Fort A. 
Lincoln, for the purpose, the season became so inclement that it was 
thought advisable to postpone the expedition until later, the snow being 
so deep and the number of men badly frozen, so great. The impractica- 
bility of operating from the Missouri River against the Sioux, during the 
winter and spring, owing to the wild storms of Dakota, was fully proven 
and rendered more than ever apparentethe necessity for the large military 
posts at the mouth of the Tongue River and on the Big Horn, already 
repeatedly recommended in anticipation of hostilities with the Sioux. 

April 28th, near Grace Creek, Nebraska, a mounted detatchment of 
nine men of Company " A," 23d Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant C. 
H. Heyl, had a fight with a band of Indians, killing one Indian and 
wounding several others. The Sergeant of the detachment was killed 
upon charging the Indians strongly posted on a hill. 

No change having been made in the orders already described, early 
in the spring Generals Terry and Crook prepared to resume the opera- 
tions discontinued previously on account of the severity of the weather. 
At Fort Fetterman, Wyoming, General Crook concentrated Troops " A," 
U B," "D," " E," and "I," 2d Cavalry, Troops "A," "B," " C," "D," 
u E? » a py> u Hj » « j» u Lj » and u M? » M Cavalry, Companies " D," and 
« F," 4th Infantry, and Companies "C," " G," and "H," 9th Infantry. 

On May 29th, this column under the personal command of General 
Crook, left Fort Fetterman for Goose Creek, where a supply camp was 
.established on June 8th. From this point General Crook moved out, 
June 13th, and on June 17th, Indians were discovered in large numbers 
on the Rosebud. General Crook's command of less than a thousand men 



60 

was attacked with desperation, the fight lasting for several hours, when 
the Indians were driven several miles in confusion, a great many being 
killed and wounded in the retreat, though the extent of their losses 
could not be ascertained. Eleven dead Indians were found upon the 
field. The casualties to the troops were nine men killed, and fifteen 
wounded of the 3d Cavalry, two men wounded of the 2d Cavalry, and 
three men of the 4th Infantry wounded, besides Captain G. V. Henry, 
3d Cavalry, severely wounded. The scene of the attack was at the 
mouth of a deep and rocky canon with steep, timbered sides, so at night- 
fall, encumbered with wounded and the troops without anything but 
what each man carried for himself, General Crook deemed it best to 
return to his supply camp, to await reinforcements and supplies, not con- 
sidering it advisable to make another forward movement until additional 
troops reached him. From the strength of the hostiles who boldly attacked 
this large column, it now became apparent that not only Crazy Horse 
and his small band had to be fought, but that the hostiles had been 
reinforced by large numbers of warriors from the agencies along the Mis- 
souri and from the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies, located near 
the boundary line between Dakota and Nebraska; the Indian Agents, 
if aware of them, having failed to inform the military of these wholesale 
departures. Such a movement from these agencies had been feared and 
in May authority had been asked allowing the military to exercise 
supervising control over these agencies, so as to keep in all who were 
present and keep out those who were then away and hostile, but this 
was not granted. * 

Simultaneously with these operations in the Department of the 
Platte, General Terry had concentrated at Fort A. Lincoln the entire 
7th Cavalry, three Gatling guns, and six companies of infantry. On 
May 17th, he marched from that post with his column, numbering about 
nine hundred men, for the mouth of Powder River, where he established 
his supply camp on the 7th of June. From this point Major Reno, with 
six troops of the 7th Cavalry, scouted up the Powder River to its forks, 
across the country to the Rosebud and down the last named stream to 
its mouth. At the same time General Terry moved with his main force 
up the south bank*of the Yellowstone River and formed a junction with 
a column under Colonel John Gibbon, consisting of four troops of the 
2d Cavalry and six companies of the 7th Infantry, which had marched 
eastward along the north bank of the Yellowstone from Fort Ellis, Mon- 
tana. During Major Reno's scout, a large Indian trail was discovered 
along the Rosebud, but as Reno's orders did not contemplate an attack 
with his small force, the trail was only followed a sufficient distance to 
definitely locate the Indians in the vicinity of the Little Big Horn River, 
after which Reno returned to the mouth of the Rosebud. 

General Terry was now satisfied as to the location of the Indians, and 



1)1 



at a conference between himself, Colonels Gibbon and Custer, on June 
21st, he communicated the following plan of operations : Gibbon's col- 
umn was to cross the Yellowstone, near the mouth of the Big Horn, 
march for the mouth of the Little Big Horn and thence up the latter, 
with the understanding that it would arrive at the last named point by 
June 26th: Custer, with the whole of the 7th Cavalry, should proceed 
up the Rosebud until he ascertained the direction taken by the trail 
found by Reno; if this led to the Little Big Horn, it should not be fol- 
lowed, but Custer should keep still further to the south, before turning 
toward that river, in order to intercept the Indians, should they attempt 
to slip between him and the mountains, and also in order, by a longer 
march, to give time for Colonel Gibbon's column to come up. 

This plan was founded upon the belief that, at some point on the 
Little Big Horn, a body of hostiles would be found, though it was im- 
possible to arrange movements in perfect concert, as might be done were 
there a known fixed objective point. It was believed impracticable to 
unite both Gibbon's and Custer's forces, because more than half of those 
of Gibbon were infantry, who could not keep up with the rapid move- 
ment of cavalry; whilst taking away the mounted troops from Gibbon, to 
unite with those of Custer, would leave Gibbon's infantry too weak a 
force to act independently. 

Under directions, then, to carry out his part of the foregoing plan, 
to also examine the upper part of Tullock's Fork and endeavor to send a 
scout through with the information thus obtained, to Gibbon's column, 
which was to examine the lower part of that fork, Custer started up the 
Rosebud on June 22d, and Gibbon's command, personally accompanied 
by General Terry, moved the same day for the mouth of the Big Horn. 
A supply steamer was to push up the Big Horn as far as the forks, if 
found navigable for that distance, and Custer, at the expiration of the 
time for which his troops were rationed, was to report to General Terry 
there, unless in the meantime other orders should be received. 

In accordance with this plan, all of Gibbon's column reached and 
crossed Tullock's Creek, on the afternoon of June 24th. 

On the afternoon of June 22d, Custer's column marched up the Rose- 
bud twelve miles and there encamped. The next day, June 23d, he 
continued up the Rosebud thirty-three miles, passing a heavy lodge pole 
trail, though not very fresh. June 24th, the advance was continued up 
the Rosebud, the trail and signs constantly growing fresher, until the 
column had marched twenty-eight miles, when camp was made. At 
eleven o'clock that night, the column was again put in motion, turning 
from the Rosebud to the right up one of its branches which headed near 
the summit of the " divide " between the Rosebud and the Little Bis: 
Horn. About two o'clock in the morning of June 25th, the column 
halted for about three hours, made coffee and then resumed the march, 



62 

crossed the divide, and by eight o'clock were in the valley of one of the 
branches of the Little Big Horn. By this time Indians had been seen, 
and as it was certain they could not now be surprised, it was determined 
to attack them. 

Custer took personal command of Troops " C," " E," "F," "I," and 
" L " ; Major Reno was given Troops "A," "G," and " M " ; Captain 
Benteen, Troops " H," " D," and " K " ; Captain McDougall with Troop 
"B," acted as guard to the pack train. 

The valley of the creek was followed towards the Little Big Horn, 
Custer on the right of the creek, Reno on the left of it, Benteen off still 
further to the left and not in sight. About eleven o'clock Reno's troops 
crossed the creek to Custer's column and remained with them until about 
half-past twelve o'clock, when it was reported that the village was only 
two miles ahead and running away. 

Reno was now directed to move forward, at as rapid a gait as he 
thought prudent, and to charge, with the understanding Custer would 
support him. The troops under Reno moved at a fast trot for about two 
miles, when they came to the river, crossed it, halted a few minutes to 
collect the men and then deployed. A charge was made down the river, 
driving the Indians rapidly for about two miles and a half, until near the 
village which was still there. Not seeing anything, however, of the sub- 
divisions under Custer and Benteen, and the Indians swarming upon him 
from all directions, Reno took position, dismounted, in the edge of some 
timber which afforded shelter for the horses of his command, continuing 
the fight on foot until it became apparent he would soon be overcome by 
the superior numbers of the Indians. He then mounted his troops, charged 
through the Indians, re-crossed the river and gained the bluffs upon the 
opposite side. In this charge, First Lieutenant Donald Mcintosh and 
Second Lieutenant Benjamin H. Hodgson, Tth Cavalry, with Acting 
Assistant Surgeon J. M. DeWolf, were killed. 

Reno's force succeeded in reaching the top of the bluff, but with a 
loss of three officers and twenty-nine enlisted men killed, and seven men 
wounded. Almost at the same time Reno's troops reached these bluffs, 
Benteen's battalion came up and a little later, the pack train, with 
McDougall's troop escorting it. These three detachments were all 
united under Reno's command and numbered about three hundred and 
eighty-one men, in addition to their officers. 

Meanwhile nothing had been heard from Custer, so the re-united 
detachments under Reno moved down the river, keeping along the bluffs 
on the opposite side from the village. Firing had been heard from that 
direction, but after moving to the highest point without seeing or hear- 
ing anything of Custer, Reno sent Captain Weir with his troop to try to 
open communication with the foruier. Weir soon sent back word that he 
could go no further and that the Indians were getting around him, at the 



03 



same time keeping up a heavy fire from his skirmish line. Reno then 
turned everything back to the first position he had taken on the bluff, 
which seemed the best for a defence, had the horses and mules driven 
into a depression, put his men, dismounted, on the crests of the hills 
making the depression, and had hardly completed these dispositions when 
the Indians attacked him furiously. 

This was now about six o'clock in the evening and the ground was 
held with a further loss of eighteen killed and forty-six wounded, until 
the attack ceased about nine o'clock at night. 

By this time the overwhelming numbers of the enemy rendered it 
improbable that the troops under Custer could undertake to rejoin those 
with Reno, so the latter began to dig rifle-pits, barricaded with dead 
horses and mules and boxes from the packs, to prepare for any further 
attack which might be made the next day. All night long the men kept 
working, while the Indians were 'holding a scalp dance, within their hear- 
ing, in the valley of the Little Horn below. 

About half-past two o'clock in the morning, of June 26th, a most 
terrific rifle-fire was opened upon Reno's position and, as daylight 
increased, hordes of Indians were seen taking station upon high points 
completely surrounding the troops, so that men were struck on opposite 
sides of the lines from where the shots were fired. The fire did not 
slacken until half-past nine o'clock in the morning, when the Indians 
made a desperate charge upon the line held by Troops " H," and " M," 
coming to such close quarters as to touch with a " coup-stick," a man 
lying dead within the lines. This onslaught was repulsed by a charge 
from the line assaulted, led by Colonel Benteen. 

The Indians also charged close enough to send their arrows into the 
line held by Troops " D," and " K," but they were driven back by a 
counter-charge of those troops, accompanied in person by Reno. 

There were now many wounded and the question of obtaining water 
was a vital one, for the troops had been without any from six o'clock the 
previous evening, a period of about sixteen hours. A skirmish line was 
formed under Benteen, to protect the descent of volunteers down the 
hill in front of the position to reach the water. A little was obtained in 
canteens, but many of the men were struck in securing the precious 
fluid. 

The fury of the attack was now over and the Indians were seen 
going off in parties to the village. Two solutions occurred, either that 
the Indians were going for something to eat and more ammunition, as 
they had been shooting arrows, or else that Custer was coming. Advan- 
tage was taken of this lull to rush down to the stream and fill all vessels 
possible with water, but the Indians continued to withdraw and firing 
ceased, excepting occasional shots from sharp-shooters sent to annoy the 
soldiers near the water. About two o'clock in the afternoon, the grass 



64 



in the bottom was extensively fired by the Indians, and behind the 
dense smoke thus created, the Indian village began to move away. 

Between six and seven o'clock in the evening, the village came out 
from behind this cloud of smoke and dust, the troops obtaining a full 
view of the cavalcade, as it filed away in the direction of the Big Horn 
Mountains, moving in almost full military order. 

All thoughts were now turned again towards Custer, of whom nothing 
had been seen or heard since he gave his orders on the previous day for 
the first advance by the detachments under Reno and Benteen, and 
which orders contemplated the support of these by the force retained 
under Custer's personal command. No one dreamed of the real explana- 
tion of Custer's absence, and the impression was that this heavy force of 
Indians had gotten between him and the rest, forcing him towards the 
mouth of the Little Big Horn, from which direction the column under 
Gibbon, with General Terry, was expected. 

During the night of June 26th, the troops under Reno changed posi- 
tion so as to better secure a supply of water and to prepare against 
another assault, should the warriors return in strong force, but early in 
the morning of the 27th, while preparing to resist any attack which 
might be attempted, the dust of a moving column was seen approaching 
in the distance. Soon it was discovered to be troops who where coming 
and in a little while a scout arrived with a note from General Terry to 
Custer, saying that some Crow scouts had come to camp stating that 
Custer had been whipped, but that their story was not believed. About 
half-past ten o'clock in the morning General Terry rode into Reno's lines 
and the fate of Custer was ascertained. 

Precisely what was done by Custer's immediate command, subsequent 
to the moment when the rest of the regiment last saw them alive, has 
remained partly a matter of conjecture, no officer or soldier who rode 
with him into the valley of the Little Big Horn, having lived to tell the 
tale. The only real evidence of how they came to meet their fate, was 
the testimony of the field where it overtook them. What was read upon 
the ground, as from an open page, was described in the official report of 
General Terry who came up with Gibbon's column. 

Custer's trail, from the point where Reno crossed the stream, passed 
along and in rear of the crest of the bluffs on the right bank, for nearly 
or quite three miles. Then it came down to the bank of the river, but 
at once diverged from it again, as though Custer had unsuccessfully 
attempted to cross ; then turning upon itself and almost completing a 
circle, the trail ceased. It was marked by the remains of officers and 
men and the bodies of horses, some of them dotted along the path, others 
heaped in ravines and upon knolls where halts appeared' to have been 
made. There was abundant evidence that a gallant resistance had been 



05 



offered by Ouster's troops, but that they were beset on all sides by over- 
powering numbers. 

The officers known to be killed were General Custer, Captains 
Keogh, Yates and Custer, Lieutenants Cooke, Smith, Mcintosh, Calhoun, 
Porter, Hodgson, Sturgis and Reilly, of the 7th Cavalry, Lieutenant 
Crittenden of the 20th Infantry, and Acting Assistant Surgeon DeWolf; 
Lieutenant Harrington of the cavalry and Assistant Surgeon Lord were 
missing. Mr. Boston Custer, a brother, and Mr. Reed, a nephew of Gen- 
eral Custer, were with him and were killed. Captain Benteen and 
Lieutenant Varnum of the cavalry and fifty-one men were wounded. 

Following up the movements of Gibbon's column from the Yellow- 
stone, starting from Tullock's Creek soon after five o'clock on the morn- 
ing of June 25th, the infantry of Gibbon's command made a march of 
twenty-two miles over a most difficult country. In order that scouts 
might be sent into the valley of the Little Big Horn, Gibbon's cavalry, 
with the battery, was then pushed on thirteen or fourteen miles further, 
not camping until midnight. Scouts were sent out at half-past four in 
the morning of June 26th; they soon discovered three Indians who were 
at first supposed to be Sioux, but when overtaken they proved to be Crows 
who had been with General Custer. They brought to General Terry the 
first intelligence of the battle. Their story was not credited; it was sup- 
posed that some fighting, perhaps severe fighting, had taken place, but 
it was not believed that disaster could have overtaken so large a force 
a,s twelve companies of cavalry. The infantry which had broken camp 
very early, soon came up and the whole column entered and moved up 
the valley of the Little Big Horn. 

During the afternoon efforts were made to send scouts through to 
what was supposed to be Custer's position, to obtain information of the 
condition of affairs, but those who were sent out were driven back by 
parties of Indians who, in increasing numbers, were seen hovering in 
front of Gibbon's column. At twenty minutes before nine o'clock in the 
evening, the infantry had marched between twenty-nine and thirty 
miles, the men were very weary and daylight was fading. The column 
was therefore halted for the night at a point about eleven miles in a 
straight line above the mouth of the stream. 

On the morning of June 27th the advance was resumed and, after a 
march of nine miles, the intrenched position was reached, the with- 
drawal of the Indians from around Reno's command and from the valley 
of the Little Big Horn being undoubtedly caused by the approach of 
Gibbon's troops. 

Major Reno and Captain Benteen, both of whom were officers of 
experience, accustomed to seeing large bodies of mounted men, esti- 
mated the number of Indians engaged at not less than twenty-five hun- 
dred; other officers thought that the number was greater than this; the 



66 



village in the valley was about three miles in length and almost a mile 
in -width. Besides the regular lodges quantities of temporary brushwood 
structures were found, indicating that many besides the proper inhabit- 
ants of the village had gathered there. 

Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, with their respective adherents, were 
both at the battle of the Little Big Horn, and for a time, Sitting Bull 
was credited with an importance which did not belong to him, his 
own direct following being comparatively small. Afterwards a separa- 
tion took place between Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and the latter 
was, on several occasions, fought by the troops north of the Yellowstone. 

During the afternoon and evening of June 27th, the wounded were 
moved to the camp of General Terry, and at five o'clock in the morning 
on the 28th, Reno's command proceeded to the battle-ground of Custer 
and buried two hundred and four bodies there: 

The 28th of June was passed in making horse and hand litters for 
the wounded, so as to move them down to the mouth of the Little 
Big Horn, a transfer which occupied several days, for the marches had 
to be short. The same day a reconnoissance was made by Captain Ball 
of the 2d Cavalry, along the trail of the Indians when they left the val- 
ley of the Little Big Horn. He reported that they divided into two par- 
ties, one of which kept the valley of Long Fork, making, he thought for 
the Big Horn Mountains ; the other turned more to the eastward. He 
also discovered leading into the valley, a very heavy trail, not more than 
five days old. This was entirely distinct from the one Custer had fol- 
lowed and indicated that at least two bands had united just before the 
battle. 

In the evening of June 28th General Terry began moving the 
wounded but was able to proceed only four miles, on account of the 
insufficient number of litters. The 29th was spent in making a full sup- 
ply of them, and in the evening of that day the column started again, 
the wounded being placed on the steamer "Far West," at the mouth of 
the Little Big Horn, at two o'clock in the morning of June 30th, reach- 
ing the depot on the Yellowstone the same afternoon. The steamer then 
proceeded with them to Fort A. Lincoln, the main command reaching 
the Yellowstone and camping on the bank of the river on the 2d of July. 

Attempts were immediately made by General Terry to communi- 
cate with General Crook, who was somewhere in that part of the coun- 
try, in order that concert of action might be established between the 
two expeditions. Two attempts failed, but a third succeeded ; three 
private soldiers of the 7th Infantry, James Bell, "William Evans and 
Benjamin H. Stewart, carried a dispatch through to General Crook and 
two of them returned with his reply. 

As soon as the news of this disaster was received at Division Head- 
quarters, additional troops were at once put in motion for General 



or 



Terry's command, as had already been done for that of General Crook, 
but these re-inforcements had to be collected from various stations on 
the frontier, some of them very remote from railroads, and much time 
was consumed before reaching their destinations. 

During this period, the bands which had broken off from the main 
body of hostiles, and the young warriors from the agencies, continued 
their old well-known methods of warfare, stealing horses on the frontier 
and killing small parties of citizens, while the constant communications 
of the hostiles with Indians at the agencies, made it evident that sup- 
plies of food and ammunition were still being drawn from those places. 

To prevent this, it had been deemed necessary that the military should 
control the agencies, and on May 29th the Interior Department had been 
requested to so co-operate with the military as to enable the latter to 
carry out the policy of arresting, disarming and dismounting such of the 
hostiles as made their appearance at these agencies. On July 18th this 
request was again earnestly renewed by Lieutenant General Sheridan, 
and on the 22d the Honorable Secretary of the Interior authorized the 
military to assume control of all the agencies in the Sioux country, but 
it was too late ; extensive trading with the enemy had been going on, 
and large supplies of ammunition had thus been obtained by the hostiles 
to carry on the war. However, the commanding officers at Camps Robin- 
son and Sheridan were at once ordered to take possession at Red Cloud's 
and Spotted Tail's Agencies, and Colonel Mackenzie, 4th Cavalry, was 
sent to Red Cloud Agency, with a force to arrest any hostiles who 
came in and to count and enroll the Indians. A careful count was made 
by September 1st, and it was found that those at Red Cloud numbered 
only four thousand seven hundred and sixty, nearly one half less than 
had been reported by the Agent. The count at Spotted Tail's Agency 
developed less than five thousand, whereas nearly double that number 
were presumed to be present at their agency and were ostensibly issued to. 
Troops were also sent to the Missouri River Agencies to accomplish 
these same purposes, and the number of Indians actually present was 
found to be from one-third to one-half less than reported present for 
issues. It was then easy to see where the small bands originally out, 
and upon whom the war was being waged, obtained their strength and 
supplies. 

At last, on July 22d Congress having passed a bill authorizing the 
construction of the two posts in the Yellowstone country, recommended 
long before this war began, preparations were made to begin them at 
once and all the material was prepared as rapidly as possible, but the 
season had now become so far advanced that it was found impracticable 
to get the supplies up the Yellowstone River, on account of low water, 
so the building of the posts had to be deferred until the following spring. 
However, a temporary cantonment was ordered to be immediately .con- 



68 



structed at the mouth of Tongue River, the place selected for one of the 
permanent posts, (now Fort Keogh,) and a strong garrison, under the 
command of Colonel Miles, 5th Infantry, was detailed to occupy it. 

July 7th, Lieutenant F. W. Sibley, 2d Cavalry, commanding a detach- 
ment of twenty-five men, with several citizens, was sent by General 
Crook to make a reconnoissance, and when near where the Little Big* 
Horn River emerges from the Big Horn Mountains, encountered a very 
large force of Indians who nearly succeeded in capturing the entire 
detachment. By great coolness, abandoning all their horses, after a very 
gallant fight, Lieutenant Sibley's party succeeded in escaping from the 
Indians and on foot made their way over a most broken country to Gen- 
eral Crook's camp, where they arrived safely, in an almost exhausted 
condition. 

July 17th, information having been received of a movement of the 
Indians at Red Cloud's Agency to join the hostiles north of them, Col- 
onel Merritt with Troops "A," "B," "D," "G," "I," "K," and "M," 
5th Cavalry, by a rapid march succeeded in intercepting a band of about 
eight hundred Indians near Hat Creek, Wyoming, surprised them, killed 
one Indian, wounded one and chased the entire band back to the Red 
Cloud Agency. 

July 30th, Lieutenant J. L. Bullis, 24th Infantry, with a detachment 
of forty men, struck a camp of hostile Lipans and Kickapoos, near 
Saragossa, Mexico, killed ten and captured four Indians with about one 
hundred horses. 

August 2d, near the mouth of the Rosebud, Montana, Major O. H. 
Moore with four officers aud two companies of the 6th Infantry and one 
company of the 17th Infantry, had a fight in which one white scout and 
one Indian were killed. 

August 14th, a steamer carrying troops and government supplies, was 
fired upon by Indians near Fort Buford, Dakota; the troops returned the 
fire and the Indians fled: no casualties occurred. 

August 23d, Lieutenant Bronson, with Company " G," 6th Infantry, 
had a fight with Indians on the Yellowstone River, Montana: one enlisted 
man was wounded. 

General Crook having received re-inforcements and having learned 
that the hostiles had now moved eastward from the Big Horn Mountains, 
marched with his column, on the 5th of August, down the Tongue River 
in pursuit. He followed the trail across Powder River and some distance 
east, when it separated and became indistinct, part of it going towards 
the Black Hills and the agencies. He then marched his command south- 
ward, in the direction of the Black Hills, and on 

September 9th, a battalion consisting of one hundred and fifty men 
of the 3d Cavalry, under Captain Anson Mills, after a very trying night- 
march, succeeded at day-break in surprising the village of " American 



69 



Horse," at Slim Buttes, Dakota, capturing the entire village of about 
thirty-seven lodges, with quantities of supplies, arms and ammunition, and 
about one hundred and seventy-five ponies. Among the articles taken 
from this village, were a guidon of the 7th Cavalry, a pair of gloves 
marked with the name of Colonel Keogh, 7th Cavalry, who was killed 
with Custer, and many other things which were recognized as belonging 
to that command. The battalion of Captain Mills suffered a loss of one 
enlisted man killed, six wounded, and Lieutenant A. H. Von Luettwitz, 
3d Cavalry, so seriously wounded in the leg as to require amputation. 
The loss of the Indians was " American Horse," mortally wounded, 
four Indians killed and about a dozen captured. The village of Crazy 
Horse was only a short distance away, and after the first flight from 
camp, the Indians returned in increased numbers and attacked Mills' 
command, but the main column of General Crook having arrived, the 
Indians were worsted in several encounters which took place, a force 
under Lieutenant Colonel W. B. Royall, 3d Cavalry, consisting of 
battalions of the 2d and 3d Cavalry, having one man wounded. The 
Indians continued hovering around the command, taking positions in 
ravines from which they had to be dislodged, with much patience and 
exposure to the troops. In the several fights which occurred, the 5th 
Cavalry, under General Carr, lost one enlisted man and one white scout 
killed, and five enlisted men wounded, the loss inflicted by his force upon 
the Indians being estimated at seven or eight killed. Major Chambers, 
4th Infantry, with the infantry battalion, consisting of three companies 
of the 4th Infantry, three of the 9th Infantry and four of the 14th Infan- 
try, drove off from the bluffs parties of Indians who were firing into the 
camp of the command, one enlisted man of the 9th Infantry being 
severely wounded in these operations. 

On September 12th, Major Upham, with one hundred and fifty men 
of the 5th Cavalry, was sent by General Crook to follow a trail leading- 
down Owl Creek, but returned on the 14th without having found any 
village. One private soldier of his command was killed by Indians on 
the Belle Fourche. 

During the later operations of General Crook's column, the troops, 
being without tents, suffered not only from the incessant cold rains pre- 
vailing, but were wholly without regular food. Having met with General 
Terry's column, the latter had shared its supplies with General Crook, 
but these became exhausted and for days General Crook's troops were 
obliged to subsist principally upon horse flesh. The animals of the cav- 
alry were so worn out by hard marching, want of forage and exposure 
to constant storms, that General Crook's column moved to Custer City 
and there obtained supplies. 

September 15th, Captain Henry Carroll, with Troop " F," 9th Cav- 
alry, had a fight with a party of Indians in the Florida Mountains, New 



70 



Mexico, killed one Indian and captured eleven head of stock : one en- 
listed man was wounded. 

October 10th, Captain C. W. Miner, 22d Infantry, with Companies 
"H," " G," and " K," 22d Infantry, and Company " C," 17th Infantry, 
escorting a train of ninety-four wagons, started from the camp at mouth 
of Glendive Creek, Montana, for the cantonment at mouth of Tongue 
River. The train was attacked in its camp that night, by Indians esti- 
mated at from four to six hundred, several of the animals wounded and 
forty-seven mules stampeded and captured. In this crippled condition 
the train attempted to reach Clear Creek, eight miles further on, being 
constantly harassed by the hostiles in large force, but finding it impos- 
sible to continue, returned to Glendive Creek for reinforcements. 

The teamsters having become too demoralized to proceed, forty-one 
of them were discharged and soldiers were detailed to drive. The 
escort, now consisting of five companies of infantry, numbering eleven 
officers and one hundred and eighty-five men, under command of Lieu- 
tenant Colonel E. S. Otis, 22d Infantry, again attempted to carry these 
much needed supplies to the garrison at Tongue River. 

October 15th, on Spring Creek the Indians, increased to an estimated 
strength of from seven to eight hundred warriors, again attacked the 
train which, however, formed in compact lines, pressed on, the infantry 
escort charging the Indians repeatedly and driving them back, while the 
wagons slowly advanced. Three or four scouts from Colonel Miles' com- 
mand were met here, having been attacked by Indians and one of their 
party killed. The train proceeded, with the escort skirmishing, until 
Clear Creek was reached, the point from which Captain Miner had pre- 
viously been obliged to return. Here the Indians made the most deter- 
mined attack, firing the prairie and the wagons being obliged to advance 
through the flames. Compactly arranged in fpur lines, the wagons pro- 
ceeded, the entire escort being engaged in alternately charging the 
Indians, driving them back and then regaining the moving teams; three 
or four of the escort were wounded and a considerable number of Indian 
saddles emptied. 

On October 16th, whilst advancing, an Indian runner approached and 
left upon a hill the following communication : 

"Yellowstone : 
I want to know what you are doing traveling on this road. You 
scare all the buffalo away. I want to hunt in this place. I want you to 
turn back from here. If you don't I will fight you again. I want you 
to leave what you have got here and turn back from here. 

I am your friend, 

Sitting Bull. 

I mean all the rations you have got and some powder. Wish you 
would write as soon as you can." 



71 



Colonel Otis sent out a scout, named Jackson, with a reply to Sitting 
Bull's note, stating that he intended to take the train through to Tongue 
River and would be pleased to accommodate the Indians with a fight at 
any time. 

The train proceeded, the Indians surrounding it and keeping up firing 
at long range. After proceeding a short distance, two Indians appeared 
with a flag of truce and communication was again opened with the hostiles 
who stated they were hungry, tired of the war and wanted to make peace. 
Sitting Bull wanted to meet Colonel Otis outside of the lines of the 
escort, which invitation, however, Colonel Otis declined, though pro- 
fessing a willingness to meet Sitting Bull inside the lines of the troops. 
This the wary savage was afraid to do, but sent three chiefs to represent 
him. Colonel Otis made them a present of one hundred and fifty pounds 
of hard bread and two sides of bacon, said that he had no authority to 
treat with them, but that the Indians could go to Tongue River and there 
make known their wishes regarding surrender. The train moved on and 
the Indians fell to its rear, finally disappearing altogether. 

On the night of the 18th of October Colonel Otis met Colonel Miles, 
with his entire regiment who, alarmed for safety of the train, had 
advanced to meet it. Colonel Otis succeeded in reaching Tongue River, 
delivered his supplies and returned safely with his wagons to Glendive, 
on October 26th. 

Shortly after meeting Colonel Otis and learning from him the imme- 
diate situation, Colonel Miles, with the entire 5th Infantry, started after 
Sitting Bull, overtaking him near Cedar Creek, Montana, north of the 
Yellowstone. Colonel Miles met Sitting Bull between the lines of the 
troops and of the Indians, the latter having sent a flag of truce to Miles, 
desiring to communicate. 

Sitting Bull simply desired to hunt buffalo and trade for ammunition ; 
he would agree that the Indians should not fire on the soldiers, if unmo- 
lested; in short, he wanted simply "an old-fashioned peace" for the 
winter. He was informed of the terms of the government, told how he 
could have peace and that he must bring in his tribe to near the camp of 
the troops. The interview closed unsatisfactorily and Colonel Miles' 
column, numbering three hundred and ninety-eight rifles, moved and 
camped on Cedar Creek, so as to intercept, more easily, the movement of 
the Indians which was northward, Sitting Bull being told to come again 
next day. 

Whilst the command was moving north between the Indian camp and 
the Big Dry River, the Indians again appeared and desired to talk. 
Another council followed between the lines, October 21st, Sitting Bull 
and a number of principal men being present. Sitting Bull wanted 
peace, if he could have it upon his own terms. He was told the condi- 
tions of the government, which were that he should either camp his peo- 



n 



pie at some point on the Yellowstone River, near to the troops, or go 
into some agency and place his people under subjection to the govern- 
ment. He said he would come in to trade for ammunition, but wanted 
no rations or annuities and desired to live free, as an Indian. He gave 
no assurance of good faith and, as the council broke up, he was told that 
a non-acceptance of the terms of the government would be considered an 
act of hostility. The Indians took positions instantly for a fig-ht and an 
engagement followed, the Indians being driven from every part of the 
field, through their camp ground, down Bad Route Creek and pursued 
forty-two miles to the south side of the Yellowstone. In their retreat 
they abandoned tons of dried meat, quantities of lodge poles, camp equip- 
age, ponies and broken down cavalry horses. Five dead warriors were 
left on the field, besides those they were seen to carry away. Their force 
was estimated at upwards of one thousand warriors. 

On October 27th, over four hundred lodges of Indians, numbering 
about two thousand men, women and children, surrendered to Colonel 
Miles: five chiefs giving themselves up as hostages for the delivery of 
men, women, children, ponies, arms and ammunition at the agencies; 
Sitting Bull himself escaped northward with his own small band, and 
was joined later by "Gall*' and other chiefs with their followers. Having* 
returned to Tongue River Cantonment, Colonel Miles organized a force 
numbering four hundred and thirty-four rifles and moved north in pur- 
suit of Sitting Bull, but the trail was obliterated by the snow, in the 
vicinity of the Big Dry River. A band of one hundred and nineteen 
lodges under "Iron Dog" crossed the Missouri in advance of the com- 
mand and dissolved itself in the Yanktonnais camp, Sitting Bull conti- 
nuing to hover about the neighborhood of the Missouri River and its 
branches, for some time afterwards. 

October 14th, a detachment of Troop "K," 2d Cavalry was reported 
as having a fight on Richard Creek, Wyoming, one soldier being killed. 

General Crook, having learned that there was danger of a considera- 
ble number of Indians at Red Cloud Agency again attempting to join the 
hostiles, directed a strong force, from his column, to proceed to that 
ao-ency, under command of Colonel Merritt, 5th Cavalry, for the purpose 
of disarming and dismounting the bands from which trouble was expected. 
Before Colonel Merritt could reach there, however, affairs had assumed 
such a threatening aspect that it was determined to arrest and disarm the 
Indians, with such force as was at hand. Accordingly Colonel Macken- 
zie, 4th Cavalry, with eight troops of cavalry, on 

October 22d succeeded, at night, in surrounding- and surprising Red 
Cloud's and Red Leafs bands, so that when daylight dawned on the 2'3d, 
the Indians surrendered without firing a shot. The Indians, numbering 
about four hundred warriors, were at once disarmed and, followed by 
their families, with camp equipage and property, were brought into the 



73 



agency, where they were released and put into camp. About seven hun- 
dred ponies were captured, together with all the arms and ammunition 
the Indians had about their persons and in the lodges. 

General Crook then had a council with Spotted Tail and, satisfied that 
the latter intended to be loyal to the government, placed this Indian in 
charge of all the Indians at both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies, 
deposing Red Cloud, the conduct of whose followers had given evidence 
of anything but proper intentions. These Indians were the same who 
had killed a large part of the garrison of Fort Phil Kearney, in 1866, and 
who had, in 1874, threatened to massacre the people at Red Cloud 
Agency, because they attempted to hoist the United States flag over it. 

The troops composing what had been known as the " Big Horn Expe- 
dition," under General Crook, having been distributed to their stations 
for the winter, another column, known as the "Powder River Expedition," 
was organized and left Fort Fetterman November 15th, 1876. It con- 
sisted of Troop "K," 2d Cavalry, " H," and " K," 3d Cavalry, "B," " D," 
"E," "F," and " M," 4th Cavalry and " H," and "L," 5th Cavalry, the 
cavalry being all commanded by Colonel R. S. Mackenzie, 4th Cavalry. 
The infantry and artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel R. I. 
Dodge, 23d Infantry, consisted of Companies "A," " B," « D," "F," " I," 
and "K," 9th Infantry, "D," and "G," 14th Infantry, "C," "G," and 
" I," 23d Infantry and " C," " F," " H," and " K," 4th Artillery. A can- 
tonment was established near old Fort Reno, Wyoming, and the cavalry 
was sent out, under Colonel Mackenzie, to find and strike a large village 
which had been reported. 

At noon on November 24th, while marching toward the Sioux Pass of 
the Big Horn Mountains, Mackenzie's Indian scouts reported the camp 
of the enemy about twenty miles distant, near the north fork of Powder 
River. The command halted till sunset, intending, by a night march, to 
surprise the Indians at daybreak, and soon after that hour on the 25th, 
almost a complete surprise was effected. The only practicable approach 
to the village was at the lower end and the Indians took refuge in a net- 
work of very deep ravines beyond the upper end of the camp, leaving on 
foot and taking nothing but their arms with them. A brisk fight for 
about an hour ensued, after which skirmishing was kept up until night. 
The village, consisting of one hundred and seventy-three lodges, with 
their contents, was entirely destroyed and about five hundred ponies were 
captured. The bodies of twenty-five dead Indians fell into the hands of 
the troops, but it was believed a much heavier loss was inflicted. The 
casualties to the troops were five men killed and twenty-five wounded, 
besides nineteen horses killed. In a very gallant charge upon the 
Indians, Lieutenant John A. McKinney, 4th Cavalry, was killed. 

The severity of the weather was intense, and being so encumbered by 
his wounded, Mackenzie rejoined the main column of the expedition 



n 



which had been following him, all returning to the cantonment near 
Fort Reno. The thermometer was so far below zero that further active 
field operations, in such weather, were considered impracticable and thev 
were, therefore, suspended for the winter. 

Meanwhile, in the Department of Dakota, the operations of Colonel 
Miles against Sitting Bull and his confederates were continued. On 
December 7th, First Lieutenant F. D. Baldwin, with Companies " G," 
" H," and " I," 5th Infantry, numbering one hundred officers and men, 
overtook Sitting Bull's camp of one hundred and ninety lodges, followed 
and drove it south of the Missouri, near the mouth of Bark Creek. The 
Indians resisted Baldwin's crossing of the river, for a short time and then 
retreated into the bad lands. On December 18th, this same force, under 
Lieutenant Baldwin, surprised Sitting Bull's band of one hundred and 
twenty-two lodges, near the head of the Red water, a southern affluent of 
the Missouri, capturing the entire camp and its contents, together with 
about sixty horses, ponies and mules. The Indians escaped with little 
besides what they had upon their persons and scattered southward across 
the Yellowstone. 



18 7 7. 



The large cantonment at the mouth of the Tongue River having been 
established, from this point as a base, the pursuit of the remnants of the 
Sioux and Northern Cheyennes with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, was 
energetically pressed by the troops under Colonel Miles. The low state 
of water in the river, now gave the troops on the Yellowstone a three-fold 
task of great difficulty, to shelter themselves by building huts, to bring 
up their supplies by tedious hauling from the head of navigation, and to 
prosecute, simultaneously, in the midst of winter, vigorous field opera- 
tions against the hostiles. 

On the 29th of December, Colonel Miles, with Companies " A," "C," 
"D," "E," and "K," 5th Infantry, and Companies " E," and "F," 22d 
Infantry, numbering four hundred and thirty-six officers and men, with 
two pieces of artillery, moved out against the Sioux and Cheyennes 
under Crazy Horse, whose camp had been reported south of the Yellow- 
stone, in the valley of Tongue River. As the column moved up 
the Tongue, the Indians abandoned their winter camps consisting of 
about six hundred lodges, and the column had two sharp skirmishes on 
the 1st and 3d of January, driving the Indians up the valley of 
Tongue River, until the night of the 7th, when the advance captured a 
young warrior and seven Cheyenne women and children, who proved to 
be relatives of one of the head-men of the tribe. A determined attempt 
was made by the Indians to rescue the prisoners, and preparations were 
made for the severe fight to be expected the next day. On the morning 
of January 8th, about six hundred warriors appeared in front of the troops 
and an engagement followed, lasting about five hours. The fight took 
place in a canon, the Indians occupying a spur of the Wolf Mountain 
range, from which they were driven by repeated charges. The ground 
was covered with ice and snow to a depth of from one to three feet, and 
the latter portion of the engagement was fought in a blinding snow- 
storm, the troops stumbling and falling, in scaling the ice and snow-cov- 
ered cliffs from which the Indians were driven, with serious loss in killed 
and wounded, through the Wolf Mountains and in the direction of the 
Big Horn range. The troops lost three men killed and eight wounded. 
The column then returned to the cantonment at the mouth of Tongue 
River. 

January 9th, a detachment of Troops " H," and " L," 6th Cavalry, and 



76 



Company " C," Indian scouts, under command of Lieutenant J. A. 
Rucker, 6th Cavalry, from the Department of Arizona, had a fight with 
a band of Indians in the mountains in the western part of New Mexico, 
killing ten Indians and capturing one ; one enlisted man was wounded. 

January 12th, on Elkhorn Creek, Wyoming, a small detachment of 
Troop "A," 3d Cavalry, had a fight with a band of Indians, three 
enlisted men being wounded. 

February 23d, near Deadwood, Dakota, Lieutenant J. F. Cummings, 
with Troop " C," 3d Cavalry, attacked a war party of Indians, killing 
one Indian and re-capturing six hundred sheep, seventeen horses and 
seven head of cattle. 

May 4th, Captain P. L. Lee, with Troop " G," 10th Cavalry, had a 
fight with Indians near Lake Quemado, Texas, killing four and capturing 
six ; one enlisted man was killed, sixty-nine head of stock were captured, 
and twelve lodges, with their contents destroyed. On May 6th, three 
more lodges and their supplies were burned by Captain Lee's command 
in Canon Resecata. 

The prisoners which Colonel Miles' command captured from Crazy 
Horse's village, on the night of January 7th, proved a valuable acquisi- 
tion in communicating with the hostiles and in arranging negotiations 
for their surrender. On February 1st Colonel Miles sent out a scout, 
with two of the captives, offering terms on which a surrender would be 
accepted, informing the hostiles that a non-compliance would result in a 
movement of the troops against them. Following up the trail from the 
scene of the engagement of January 8th, near the Wolf Mountains, the 
Indians were found camped on a tributary of the Little Big Horn. The 
mission was successfully executed and on February 19th the scout 
returned with nineteen Indians, mainly chiefs and leading warriors, who 
desired to learn the exact conditions upon which they could surrender. 
The terms were repeated, viz : unconditional surrender and compliance 
with such orders as might be received from higher authority. 
The delegation returned to their village, the camps moved to near 
the forks of Powder River, for a general council and a large 
delegation of leading chiefs came in, March 18th, to learn whether 
further concessions could be obtained from Colonel Miles. They 
were informed that there would be no change in previous conditions 
and that it would be equally satisfactory if the Indians surrendered at the 
more southern agencies, but that they must do one thing or the other, or 
troops would be immediately sent out after them. Crazy Horse's uncle, 
named " Little Hawk," with others, then guaranteed to either bring the 
Indian camp to the cantonment at Tongue River, or to take it to the 
lower agencies, leaving in Colonel Miles' hands as a pledge of good 
faith, nine hostages, prominent men and head warriors of both tribes. 
Three hundred Indians led by " Two Moons," " Hump," and other chiefs, 



77 



surrendered to Colonel Miles on April 22d. The largest part of the 
bands, numbering more than two thousand, led by Crazy Horse, Little 
Hawk, and others, moved southward and surrendered at the Red Cloud 
and Spotted Tail Agencies in May. 

Crazy Horse and his people were placed on the reservation, near 
Camp Robinson, where, for a time, they appeared quiet and peaceable, 
but in a few months the restraints of this new position became so irksome 
to Crazy Horse, that he began to concoct schemes again involving his 
people in war. It was determined, therefore, to arrest and confine him. 
Whilst on his way to the guard-house, he broke from those around him 
and attempted to escape by hewing his way, with a knife, through the 
circle of sentinels and by-standers. In the melee, he was fatally wounded 
and died on the night of September 7th. 

In the meantime Sitting Bull's camp had gathered near the Yellow- 
stone, and when Crazy Horse and his confederates decided to place them- 
selves under subjection to the Government, Sitting Bull's band, in order 
to avoid surrendering and to escape further pursuit, retreated beyond the 
northern boundary and took refuge on Canadian soil, the party being in 
a very destitute condition, almost out of ammunition and having lost 
nearly everything excepting their guns and horses. 

From those who had surrendered, Colonel Miles learned that a band 
of renegades, chiefly Minneconjous, under "Lame Deer," had determined 
not to yield, had broken off from those who surrendered at Tongue 
River, and had moved westward. This was about April 22d, and as soon 
as the necessary forage could be obtained, on May 1st, Colonel Miles, 
with a force consisting of Troops " F," " G," " H," and " L," 2d Cavalry, 
Companies " E," and " H," 5th Infantry, and "E," " F," " G," and "H," 
22d Infantry, started up Tongue River. At a point sixty-three miles 
from its mouth, they cut loose from the wagons, struck across to and 
moved up the Rosebud, and after a very hard march, with scarcely a halt 
during two nights and one day, the command surprised Lame Deer's 
band on May 7th, near the mouth of Muddy Creek, an affluent of the 
Rosebud. The village was charged in fine style and the Indian herd 
of animals cut off and secured. The Indians were called on to surren- 
der ; Lame Deer and " Iron Star," his head warrior, appeared desirous 
of doing so, but after shaking hands with some of the officers, the Indians 
either meditating treachery or fearing it, again began firing. This ended 
peace making and the fight was resumed, the hostiles being driven, in a 
running fight, eight miles, across the broken country, to the Rosebud. 
Fourteen Indians were killed, including Lame Deer and Iron Star, four 
hundred and fifty horses, mules and ponies, and the entire Indian camp 
outfit were captured, including fifty-one lodges well stored with supplies. 
Lieutenant A. M. Fuller, 2d Cavalry, was slightly wounded; four enlisted 
men were killed and six were wounded. The Indians who escaped sub- 



78 



sequently moved eastward to the Little Missouri and the command re- 
turned to the cantonment, where four companies, " B," " F," " G," and 
" I," 5th Infantry, were mounted with the Indian ponies and continued 
to serve as cavalry until after the N.ez Perces campaign in the following 
autumn. 

During the remainder of May and the early part of June, the force 
under Colonel Miles, commanding the district of the Yellowstone, was 
increased by eleven troops of the 7th Cavalry, four companies of the 1st 
Infantry, and two of the 11th Infantry. A portion of these were sent 
to assist in the construction of the new post on the Big Horn, (now Fort 
Custer,) and field operations were continued by several separate columns 
from Colonel Miles' force. 

One of these detachments, consisting of six companies of the 22d 
Infantry, three companies of the 1st Infantry, and one troop of the 
7th Cavalry, under command of Major H. M. Lazelle, 1st Infantry, 
on June 16th, left Tongue River, dropped down by boat to below the 
mouth of Powder River, marched thence beyond the Box Elder, on the 
Upper Little Missouri, and struck the trail of Lame Deer's band. This 
was followed nearly to Sentinel Buttes, the advance overtaking and skir- 
mishing with a part of the band. 

A second detachment, consisting of three troops of the 2d Cavalry 
and one piece of artillery, was sent by. boat from Tongue River to Glen- 
dive, July 2d, with orders to march towards the Little Missouri and to 
try to intercept the Indians pursued by Major Lazelle. The two forces 
united on the Yellowstone about July 18th, and the three troops of the 
2d Cavalry, reinforced by three companies, " A," " H," and " I," 5th In- 
fantry, mounted, were placed under command of Major J. S. Brisbin, 2d 
Cavalry. These two commands moved across the Little Missouri, follow- 
ing the trail of the Indians up that stream to Short Pine Hills. Major 
Lazelle's force then returned with the wagons to Wolf Rapids and sub- 
sequently to Tongue River, arriving there about the end of August. 
Brisbin's column, with pack animals, continued the pursuit of the Indians 
across the Little Powder River, then to the main Powder and over the 
Wyoming boundary, gaining upon the hostiles and causing them to 
abandon some of their property, but without succeeding in getting a 
fight. Worn out by the hard marching and pursuit, Brisbin's column 
returned by the valleys of Powder and Tongue Rivers to the canton- 
ment at the mouth of the latter, where it arrived August 30th; the In- 
dians, continually pursued and harrassed by the troops, moved south- 
ward to Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies, surrendering there dur- 
ing the months of July, August and September. 

In the latter part of July, the Nez Perces Indians, pursued by Gen- 
eral Howard, with troops from the Department of the Columbia, made 
their way, via the Lo-Lo trail, toward Montana; Captain Rawn, 7th In- 



79 



fantry, promptly threw a small force consisting of his company of thirty 
men and a few citizen volunteers, into the Lo-Lo Pass, where they in- 
trenched themselves in the canon, determined to dispute the entrance of 
" Chief Joseph " and his band into Montana. 

On July 27th, Captain Rawn had a talk with the Nez Perces, who 
proposed, if unmolested, to march peaceably through the Bitter Root 
valley, but Captain Rawn refused to allow them to pass without the war- 
riors surrendering their arms. Another council was arranged for the fol- 
lowing day, July 28th, Captain Rawn hoping to detain the Nez Perces 
until General Howard's troops, or expected assistance from Fort Shaw, 
Montana, under Colonel Gibbon, should arrive. 

After the second council, the Nez Perces refused to comply with Cap- 
tain Rawn's demands and, by climbing the hills, succeeded in passing 
around his flank into the Bitter Root valley. Captain Rawn then aban- 
doned his breastworks, formed a skirmish line across the canon and ad- 
vanced in the direction the Indians had taken, but they retreated into 
the Bitter Root; only about a dozen or twenty of the volunteers remain- 
ing with Captain Rawn's small company, it was obliged to return to its 
post near Missoula. 

Colonel J. Gibbon, 7th Infantry, having collected from the posts in 
Montana, several companies of his regiment, started from Fort Shaw for 
Missoula, one hundred and fifty miles distant, making the march in seven 
days. He reached the new post, there, on the afternoon of August 3d, 
his force consisting of companies " A," " D," " F," « G," " I," and " K," 
7th Infantry, with about thirty-five citizen volunteers, aggregating one 
hundred and ninety-one officers and men. 

With this command Colonel Gibbon started in pursuit of the Indians, 
who had turned southward up the valley of the Bitter Root, and after 
five days of terrible climbing over the rugged and broken country inter- 
vening, the Nez Perces village was overtaken, on the night of the 8th 
of August, in the " Big Hole Basin," Montana. The troops quietly 
made their way, in the darkness, through the Indian herd of ponies, and 
stationed themselves near the village, the command lying down to wait 
for dawn. 

As day began to break, the troops, in perfect silence, moved to their 
positions for attack, a deep slough, with water waist deep, having to be 
crossed before reaching the Indian camp. Suddenly a single shot was 
heard on the extreme left, followed quickly by others, and the line of 
men sprang forward. A heavy fire was at once opened along the entire 
length of the Indian "teepees," the startled Nez Perces rushing from 
their lodges in every direction, many taking refuge in the brush and 
behind the bank of the creek, along which the village lay. A destruc- 
tive fire was poured into the troops, as the latter came into the open 



80 



ground, but in less than twenty minutes they were in full possession of 
the camp and orders were given for its destruction. 

Whilst part of the men were engaged in burning the lodges, the 
Indians kept up a fire from their sheltered positions, officers and men 
falling rapidly under these well directed shots, until orders were reluc- 
tantly given to withdraw from the village and take shelter in the timber. 
This movement was successfully accomplished, the troops carrying off 
with them such of their wounded as could be found, the Nez Perces fol- 
lowing closely and keeping up a constant fire. The fighting continued 
with activity all day, the Indians attempting to burn out the troops, by 
setting fire to the grass and woods, and during the night shots were 
occasionally discharged into the position of the troops. 

In the night march, on August 8th, to surprise and attack the camp, 
the supply train had to be left behind, so that the troops were wholly 
without food, blankets, or medicine for the wounded, all being forced to 
satisfy hunger, as well as they could, with the flesh of their dead horses. 
About eleven o'clock at night, on August 10th, the Indians gave the 
troops a parting volley and disappeared. 

On the morning of August 11th, parties were sent out by Gibbon to 
bury the dead, all of whom were found and properly interred. At ten 
o'clock in the morning, General Howard, with a small escort from his 
column, reached Gibbon's position, and preparations were at once made 
to resume the pursuit. 

In this engagement the casualties were very great, considering the 
small size of the force engaged, and were as follows : Killed, Captain 
AYilliam Logan and First Lieutenant James H. Bradley, 7th Infantry, 
twenty-one enlisted men and six citizens ; total killed, twenty-nine. 
Wounded, Colonel John Gibbon, Captain C. Williams, two wounds ; 
First Lieutenant C. A. Coolidge, three wounds ; First Lieutenant. Wil- 
liam L. English, two wounds, one wound mortal ; Second Lieutenant C. 
A. Woodruff, three wounds; four citizen volunteers wounded and thirty- 
one enlisted men, one of the latter mortally; total killed and wounded, 
sixty-nine, out of a strength of one hundred and ninety-one. Lieutenant 
English died of his wounds August 19th. 

Captain Comba, who commanded the burial party, reported finding 
the bodies of eighty-nine dead Indians on the field. 

On August 13th, fifty of Colonel Gibbon's badly crippled force vol- 
unteered, under Captain Browning and Lieutenants Wright and Van 
Orsdale, to go with General Howard in pursuit of the hostiles, and Col- 
onel Gibbon proceeded with the wounded to Deer Lodge, Montana, 
ninety-miles distant, where they arrived on August 16th. Captain R. 
Norwood, with Troop " L," 2d Cavalry, started from Fort Ellis, August 
8th, to join Colonel Gibbon in the field, but while en route was ordered 
to report to General Howard. 



81 



After leaving the Big Hole battle ground, the Nez Perces proceeded 
south, past the town of Bannock, murdering settlers and stealing stock 
as they went. They then crossed the main divide of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, east of Fort Lemhi, turned east and recrossed the Rockies again, 
near Henry's Lake, moved thence to the Madison River, up that stream 
to the Geyser Basin and through that to the Yellowstone. This they 
crossed, and then moved, by an irregular course, to Clark's Fork and 
down that to its junction with the Yellowstone, closely pursued by Gen- 
eral Howard's wearied troops and the detachment from Colonel Gibbon's 
command. 

Early in the morning of August 20th, at Camas Meadows, Idaho, % the 
Nez Perces succeeded in capturing aboat one hundred mules from Gen- 
eral Howard; Major Sanford, with two troops of the 1st Cavalry, and 
that of Captain Norwood, pursued with great energy, struck the Indians 
and recaptured about fifty of the animals. In this attack Lieutenant H. 
M. Benson, 7th Infantry, attached to Captain Norwood's troop, and six 
enlisted men were wounded ; one enlisted man was killed. 

Information of the direction the Nez Perces were taking having been 
transmitted by telegraph, Colonel Sturgis, with Troops "F," " G," " H," 
" I," " L," and " M," 7th Cavalry, numbering about three hundred and 
sixty men, was dispatched from the neighborhood of Tongue River, to 
try to intercept the hostiles in the direction of Judith Gap. On August 
27th, Colonel Sturgis received, by way of Fort Ellis, a telegram from 
General Howard, dated the 25th, at Virginia City, Montana, stating that 
the hostiles would cross the Stinking River, about one hundred miles 
southeast of the Crow Agency : he also received information through 
his scouting parties which satisfied him that the Nez Perces were still 
south of the Yellowstone, so Colonel Sturgis decided to watch both the 
Stinking River and Clark's Fork. On September 8th he struck the trail, 
and on September 11th met the exhausted troops of General Howard in 
the vicinity of Clark's Fork. 

Colonel Sturgis pushed on, with his own command, hoping by forced 
marches of fifty or sixty miles per day, for three or four days, to over- 
take the Nez Perces; so, joined by about fifty men of Troops " C," and 
" K," 1st Cavalry, and two mountain howitzers from General Howard's 
expedition, the chase was resumed. At the same time word was sent by 
couriers to Colonel Miles, at Tongue River, notifying him of the course 
the Nez Perces were last following, in the belief that he might, by a 
rapid direct march from his post, intercept the hostiles still further to the 
north. 

The first day after leaving General Howard, Colonel Sturgis marched 
fifty miles, and the next morning, September 13th, he reached the Yel- 
lowstone and crossed the river. The Nez Perces being reported in sight, 
the column moved rapidly down the valley six or seven miles, the advance 



82 



guard attacking a few Indian skirmishers posted behind the crests of 
some ridges. Colonel Sturgis' entire force soon became engaged and 
drove these Indians back upon their main body which was moving up 
Canon Creek. The Indians strongly occupied both the canon and high 
ground on each side of it, but they were steadily driven by the troops 
from rock to rock, toward the head of the canon, when nightfall put an 
end to the fight. 

The loss of the Indians in this engagement and in the pursuit on the 
following day, was twenty-one killed ; the loss of the troops was three 
enlisted men killed and Captain T. H. French, 7th Cavalry, and eleven 
enljsted men wounded ; the number of ponies lost by the Indians was 
altogether about nine hundred. 

Early on September 14th, Sturgis resumed the pursuit, preceeded by 
a large party of Crow scouts, who killed five more of the rear guard of 
the Nez Perces and captured four hundred of the entire number of ponies 
taken by Sturgis' command. Worn out by incessant marching, the 
troops could do little, however, to diminish the distance between them- 
selves and the Indians, every officer and man of the cavalry taken from 
General Howard's column, being on foot, owing to the exhausted condition 
of their horses. For several days the troops had been wholly without 
rations and the limit of endurance had been reached by both rcflen and 
animals; Colonel Sturgis accordingly discontinued his pursuit and waited 
for General Howard to overtake him, when both commands were united, 
and marched together from the Musselshell to the Missouri, reaching 
Carroll, on October 1st. General Howard proceeded by boat to Cow 
Island, leaving Colonel Sturgis in command of the troops. 

The night of September 17th, Colonel Miles received the communica- 
tions informing him of the movements of the Nez Perces; he at once 
started from Tongue River, September 18th, and marched rapidly in a 
northwest direction to intercept the enemy. His force consisted of 
Troops "F," "G," and "H," 2d Cavalry, "A," « D," and " K," 7th 
Cavalry and Companies "B," " F," "G," "I," and "K," 5th Infantry, 
(mounted,) two pieces of light artillery and a detachment of white and 
Indian scouts; he decided to push for the gap between the northern end 
of the Little Rocky and the Bear Paw Mountains. On September 23d 
the Nez Perces crossed the Missouri, at Cow Island, destroying the public 
and private stores there. A detachment of twelve men, under Sergeant 
Molchert, 7th Infantry, was stationed at this point, in a slight intrench- 
ment; they were repeatedly charged by the Nez Perces, who were, 
however, as often repulsed by the little garrison consisting of but four 
citizens and Sergeant Molchert's detachment ; two of the citizens were 
wounded. 

Major Ilges, 7th Infantry, commanding, at Fort Benton, received 
information, on September 21st, that the Nez Perces were approaching 



83 



Fort Claggett; he immediately started with his single weak company of 
the 1 ;h Infantry and a party of thirty-six citizen volunteers, and reached 
Claggett the next day. On September 26th a skirmish ensued, lasting 
two hours, one of the volunteers being killed. Major Ilges, feeling that 
his force was not strong enough to continue the pursuit, he withdrew to 
Cow Island. 

On September 25th, Colonel Miles received, through the citizens who 
had escaped from Cow Island, information that the Indians had crossed 
the Missouri, so he began very rapid forced marches which brought his 
command to the Bear Paw range on September 29th. 

On September 30th, at seven o'clock in the morning, after a march 
of two hundred and sixty-seven miles, Colonel Miles' command was upon 
the trail of the Nez Perces and their village was reported only a few 
miles away. It was located within the curve of a cresent shaped cut 
bank in the valley of Snake Creek and this, with the position of some 
warriors in ravines leading into the valley, rendered it impossible, for his 
scouts to determine the full size and strength of the camp. The whole 
column, however, advanced at a rapid gait, the leading battalion of the 
2d Cavalry being sent to make a slight detour, attack in rear, and cut oif 
and secure the herd. This was done in gallant style, the battalion, in a 
running •fight, capturing upwards of eight hundred ponies; the battalions 
of the 7th Cavalry and the 5th Infantry charged, mounted, directly 
upon the village. 

The attack was met by a desperate resistance and every advance was 
stubbornly contested by the Indians, but with a courageous persistence, 
fighting dismounted, the troops secured command of the whole Indian 
position, excepting the beds of the ravines in which some of the warriors 
were posted. A charge was made on foot by a part of the 5th Infantry 
down a slope and along the open valley of the creek into the village, but 
the fire of the Indians soon disabled thirty-five per cent of the detach- 
ment wmich made this assault, and attempts to capture the village, by 
such means, had to be abandoned. 

In the first charge by the troops and during the hot fighting which 
followed, Captain O. Hale, 7th Cavalry, Lieutenant J. W. Biddle, 7th 
Cavalry, and twenty-two enlisted men were killed; Captains Moylan and 
Godfrey, 7th Cavalry, First Lieutenants Baird and Romeyn, 5th Infantry, 
and thirty-eight enlisted men were wounded. 

The Indian herd having been captured, the eventual escape of the 
village became almost impossible. The casualties to the troops had 
amounted to twenty per cen-t of the force engaged, there were many 
wounded to care for, and there were neither tents nor fuel, a cold wind 
and snow storm prevailing on the night of September 30th, so Colonel 
Miles determined to simply hold his advantage for a time, notifying 
General Howard and Colonel Sturgis of the situation; Colonel Sturgis 



84 



received Colonel Miles' dispatch on the evening of October 2d, a id at 
once started his troops for the battle field. 

On the morning of October 1st, however, communication was opened 
between Colonel Miles' troops and the Indians, and Chief Joseph, with 
several of his warriors, appeared under a flag of truce: they expressed a 
willingness to surrender, and brought up a part of their arms, (eleven 
rifles and carbines,) but being suspicious, the Nez Perces remaining in 
camp hesitated to come forward and lay down their arms. While Chief 
Joseph remained in Colonel Miles' camp, Lieutenant Jerome, 2d Cavalry, 
was sent to ascertain what was going on in the village; he went into the 
Indian camp and was detained there by the Nez Perces, unharmed, until 
Joseph returned on the afternoon of October %d. General Howard with 
a small escort, arrived upon the scene, on the evening of October 4th, in 
time to be present at the fall surrrender of the Indians. 

During the fight with Colonel Miles' command, seventeen Indians 
were killed and forty wounded; the surrender included eighty-seven war- 
riors, one hundred and eighty-four squaws and one hundred and forty- 
seven children. The prisoners were first sent to Fort A. Lincoln, thence 
to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and were finally located in the Indian 
Territory. 

In the annual report for the year 1877, by Colonel Miles, commanding 
the district of the Yellowstone, the following summary of the operations 
of his troops against Indians in that District, for the years 1876 and 1877, 
appears; aggregate distance marched, over four thousand miles: besides 
the large amount of property captured and destroyed, sixteen hundred 
horses, ponies and mules were taken from the hostiles: each principal en- 
gagement was followed by important surrenders of bands, and upwards 
of seven thousand Indians were either killed, captured, forced to sur- 
render, or driven out of the country. 

September 29th, Lieutenant Bullis, 24th Infantry, with a small de- 
tachment, pursued a band of hostile Lipans and attacked them in their 
camp, four miles from Saragossa, Mexico; he captured four squaws, one 
boy, twelve horses and two mules and destroyed the Indians' camp 
equipage. 

November 1st, near the Rio Grande, Lieutenant Bullis, 24th Infantry, 
with a detachment of thirty-seven Seminole scouts, had a fight with a 
band of renegade Apaches and other Indians. Captain S. B. M. Young, 
8th Cavalry, with a force of one hundred and sixty-two men, consisting 
of Troops "A" and "K," 8th Cavalry, and "C," 10th Cavalry, and Lieu- 
tenant Bullis' detachment of scouts, after a very long pursuit, succeeded 
in surprising this band of Indians near the Carmen Mountains, Mexico, 
on November 29th. A charge by the troops dispersed the Indians in 
every direction, with a loss of their camp equipage, seventeen horses, six 
mules and some arms; one enlisted man was wounded. 



85 



December 13th, at Ralston Flat, New Mexico, a detachment of Troops 
"C," "G," "H," and "L," 6th Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant J. A. 
Rucker, 6th Cavalry, from the Department of Arizona, had a skirmish in 
which one Indian was killed; the same detachment had another fight with 
Indians in Las Animas mountains, New Mexico, December 18th, when 
fifteen more Indians were killed. 

In addition to engagements between Troops and Indians, in the 
Department of Texas, the following attacks were also specially reported 
by various post commanders : 

October 9th, 1876, Juan Marengo was killed at the mail station at 
Eagle Springs, Texas. 

Two men, named Kountz and Spears, mail carriers from Fort 
McKavett, Texas, were killed : date not given. 

February 22d, 1877, a buffalo hunter, named Soule, was killed near 
the Staked Plains. 

March 7th, 1877, four miles from Fort Davis, Deroteo Cardinas and 
John Williams were killed. 

The Commanding Officer Fort Clark, Texas, reported three persons 
killed by Indians on April 20th, 21st, and 22d, 1877. 

May 30th, 1877, Bescento Acosta was killed by Apaches, about four 
miles from Fort Davis. 

August 1st, 1877, Henry Dill, a stage driver, was killed at El Muerto, 
Texas and on the same day, four miles from that place, a man named 
Sandy Ball was killed. 

A Mexican was killed, near Uvalde, November 16th, and two Mexi- 
can herders were also killed, near Fort Clark, on November 18th. 

December 23d, Gabriel Valdez and Horan Parsons were killed in 
Bass Canon, near Van Horn's Wells, Texas. 



18 7 8. 



January oth, sixty miles northwest of Presidio del Norte, Texas, six 
men were killed by Mescalero Apaches from the Fort Stanton reserva- 
tion, New Mexico. (Reported by commanding officer Fort Davis, 
' Texas.) 

January 16th, Colonel J. E. Smith, 14th Infantry, commanding officer 
at Fort Hall, Idaho, reported the surprise and capture by troops of his 
command, of a party of hostile Bannocks at the Ross Fork Agency, 
Idaho; ten warriors were disarmed and two hundred and fifty horses cap- 
tured. 

On the same day, Companies " A," and " H," 25th Infantry, and 
Troop " H," 10th Cavalry, commanded by Captain Courtney, 25th Infan- 
try, proceeded in pursuit of Indians who had raided Russell's ranch, on 
the Rio Grande, Texas, where four Mexicans had been killed and three 
wounded: the time which had elapsed before receiving news of the at- 
tack, and the distance to be marched by the troops were so great, how- 
ever, that the Indians could not be overtaken. The same day the com- 
manding officer of Fort McKavett, Texas, reported Mr. Doty killed by 
Indians, near Brady City, Texas, and another person, name unknown, in 
Mason County, Texas. 

February 16th, Victorio Rios, and Sevoriano Elivano, were killed by 
Indians, at Point of Rocks, Limpia Canon, Texas. (Reported by com- 
manding officer Fort Davis, Texas.) 

February 23d, the commanding officer at Fort Clark, Texas, reported 
that R. W. Barry and Juan Dias were killed by Indians, on the Laredo 
road, twenty-three miles below Fort Duncan, Texas. 

April loth, Lieutenant A. Geddes, 25th Infantry, with ten men of 
Troop " K," 10th Cavalry, pursued to the Carrizo Mountains, a band of 
Mescalero Apache Indians who had stolen twelve mules from a train near 
Fort Davis, Texas. The same day Lieutenant Bigelow, with twenty-five 
men of Troop " B," 10th Cavalry, pursued a band of Indians who had 
killed a mail rider near Escondido Station, Texas; the trail was followed 
for six days and the mail found, but the Indians could not be overtaken. 

April 17th, the following named persons were killed : W. M. Mc- 
Call, nine miles from Fort Quitman, Texas, Frederick B. Moore, at San 
Ygnacio, McMullen County, and Vicenti Robledo, near Brown's ranch, 
Texas; George and Dick Taylor were also killed, at Mr. Steele's ranch, 



88 



on the Nueces River, Texas, by Lipan and Kickapoo Indians. (Reported 
by the commanding officers of Fort Davis, San Diego, and Fort Clark, 
Texas.) 

April 18th, Guadaloupe Basan was killed at Rancho Soledad, Duval 
County, Texas : near this ranch, on the same day, a Mexican shepherd 
and his wife were shot, tied together and thrown across a horse : John 
Jordan was also killed at Charco Escondido, Duval County, Texas. (Re- 
ported by commanding officer of San Diego, Texas.) 

April 19th, Margarito Rodriguez was killed, ten miles west of Charco 
Escondido, Texas; at Quijotes Gordes, Texas, Jose Maria Canales was 
shot by Indians, thrown into his camp fire and his lower extremities con- 
sumed. (Reported by commanding officer at San Diego, Texas.) 

April 20th, Lonjinio Gonzales, mail rider, was killed near " Point of 
Rocks," eighteen miles north east of Fort Davis, Texas; also Florentino 
and another person, (name unknown); these were supposed to have been 
killed by Mescalero Apaches from Fort Stanton reservation, New Mex- 
ico. (Reported by commanding officer at Fort Davis, Texas.) 

The hostiles who had broken away and followed Sitting Bull to the 
British Possessions in 1877, continued hovering in considerable numbers 
on both sides of the boundary. Reports were received of over four hun- 
dred lodges having gone north, in various bands, since the 1st of Octo- 
ber, preceding, so Colonel Miles, with about eight hundred mounted 
men from Fort Keogh, Montana, started in February for the purpose of 
finding a large force of Indians then on the south side of the line ; 
instructions were sent from the War Department, not to attack them, 
however, if they remained north of the Missouri, so the expedition was 
recalled under these conditions. On April 2d, the United States Indian 
Agent at Fort Peck, hearing of the approach of a small force of troops 
under Lieutenant Baldwin, 5th Infantry, requested that officer to visit 
the agency, where small parties, of well armed hostiles had been coming 
in constantly, professing a desire to cease hostilities, demanding food, 
making violent demonstrations when refused, and threatening the agent 
by firing over his head : Lieutenant Baldwin proceeded to the agency, 
leaving his troops on the south side of the river, and about April 25th he 
received the surrender of a small band, five or six of whom were war- 
riors. 

June 1st, the commanding officer of Fort Clark, Texas, reported that 
two herders were killed at Mr. Nicholas Colson's ranch, twelve miles 
west of Camp Wood, Texas. 

June 28th, at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, a United States Marshal, 
with a guard of soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant Whitall, 16th Infan- 
try, attempted to execute a writ for the arrest of Indians engaged in an 
attempt to kill a man named Montgomery; the Indians resisting and 



89 



drawing their knives upon Lieutenant Whitall and 'his guard, two In- 
dians were killed and one wounded. 

June 30th, Lieutenant C. R. Ward, with fifteen men of Troop " D," 
10th Cavalry, pursued a band of Indians who had stolen seven horses on 
the South Concho River, Texas; heavy rains having obliterated the trail, 
the pursuit was finally abandoned. 

Small parties of Nez Perces having again committed murders and 
depredations in Montana, on July 15th, First Lieutenant T. S. Wallace, 
3d Infantry, with a detachment of fifteen mounted men, started in pur- 
suit : he overtook them near Middle Fork of the Clearwater, July 21st, 
killed six Indians and wounded three, captured thirty-one horses and 
mules and killed twenty-three, without loss to his command. This party 
were supposed to be deserters from " White Bird's " band, on their way 
from British Columbia to their former homes in Idaho. 

August 2d, Sergeant Claggett, with eleven men of Troop " H," 10th 
Cavalry, pursued to the Guadaloupe Mountains, a band of Indians who 
had killed a stage driver and run off stock at El Muerto, Texas. 

Hostile Bannock Indians from the Department of the Columbia, pro- 
ceeded eastward, over the Nez Perces trail of the previous year, stealing 
stock on the way ; Captain J. Egan, with Troop " K," 2d Cavalry, pro- 
ceeded up the Madison River, in the direction of Henry's Lake, and on 
August 27th struck a Bannock camp and captured fifty-six head of 
stock. 

Hearing of the approach of the Bannocks, Colonel Miles, with one 
hundred men of the 5th Infantry and a band of thirty-five Crow scouts, 
hastened to intercept the hostiles. A small party, under command of 
Lieutenant Clark, 2d Cavalry, was detached by Colonel Miles, to make 
a detour, and on the 29th and 30th of August struck parties of Ban- 
nocks, inflicting some damage in each case. Colonel Miles continued up 
Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, and on September 4th surprised a camp 
of Bannocks, killed eleven Indians and captured thirty-one, together 
with two hundred horses and mules: Captain Bennett, 5th Infantry, was 
killed, also the Interpreter and one Indian scout ; one enlisted man was 
wounded. 

On September 12th, Lieutenant H. S. Bishop, 5th Cavalry, with a de- 
tachment of thirty men and some Shoshone scouts, struck a party of 
Bannocks on a tributary of Snake River, Wyoming, killed one Indian 
and captured seven, together with eleven horses and three mules : the 
prisoners had escaped from the fight with Colonel Miles on Clark's Fork, 
September 4th, and reported that they had lost twenty-eight killed in 
that affair. 

After the extensive surrenders in 1877, of the hostile Northern Chey- 
ennes, in the Departments of Dakota and the Platte, a portion, number- 
ing two hundred and thirty-five men, three hundred and twelve women 



90 



and three hundred and eighty-six children, with four Arapahoes, were 
sent with a military guard from Fort Robinson, Nebraska, to the Chey- 
enne and Arapahoe Agency, at Fort Reno, Indian Territory, where they 
were turned over to the Indian Agent on August 8th, 1877. 

Subsequent to that date, other small parties surrendered and some died, 
so that on July 1st, 1878, the number of Northern Cheyennes, at Fort 
Reno, Indian Territory, was nine hundred and forty-two. An attempt 
had been made by General Pope, commanding the Department of the 
Missouri, to disarm and dismount these Indians, so as to place them on 
the same footing with the Southern Cheyennes, but as it was found this 
could not be done without violation of the conditions of their surrender, 
they were permitted to retain their arms and ponies. 

A large part of these Northern Cheyennes found friends and kindred 
among the Southern Cheyennes at Fort Reno, mixed with them, and 
joined the various bands. About one-third of the Northern Cheyennes, 
however, under the leadership of " Dull Knife," " Wild Hog," " Little 
Wolf," and others, comprising about three hundred and seventy-five 
Indians, remained together and would not affiliate with the Southern 
Cheyennes. Dissatisfied with life at their new agency at Fort Reno, 
they determined to break away, move north and rejoin their friends 
in the country where they formerly lived. As nearly as could be 
ascertained, those who escaped from Fort Reno numbered eighty-nine 
men, one hundred and twelve women and one hundred and thirty-four 
children. Their intention to escape had long been suspected and their 
movements were consequently watched by the troops, but by abandon- 
ing all their lodges, which they left standing, they stole away on the 
night of September 9th. Two troops of the 4th Cavalry, under Captain 
Rendlebrock, the only mounted force at Reno, started immediately in 
pursuit, and the garrisons were ordered out from Forts Supply, Dodge, 
Lyon and other places, near the Arkansas River, to intercept or overtake 
the escaping band; some cavalry was also ordered up to Fort Reno, from 
Fort Sill, to prevent an extension of this exodus, and two troops of the 
4th Cavalry, were also directed to march rapidly from Fort Elliott, Texas, 
to Fort Dodge. Besides these precautions, the garrisons of Fort ^Yal- 
lace, two companies of 16th Infantry, Fort Hays, three companies of 3d 
Infantry, and Fort Leavenworth, the latter consisting of one hundred 
mounted men of the 23d Infantry, altogether two hundred and fifty men, 
were disposed along the line of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, to watch for 
the Cheyennes, should they succeed in eluding the troops upon the Ar- 
kansas. 

In the Department of the Platte, dispositions of troops were made 
along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, at points where the Indians 
might be expected to cross, should they escape between the detachments 
in the Department of the Missouri. 



91 



On September 16th, Lieutenant Colonel Wm, H. Lewis, 19th Infan- 
try, commanding officer at Fort Dodge, Kansas, reported that the Chey- 
ennes were raiding about the mouth of Bluff Creek, Indian Territory, 
and were driving off stock. Colonel Lewis sent all the force he could 
spare (about forty men of the 19th Infantry,) to Pierceville, north of the 
Arkansas, and west of Fort Dodge, to try and strike the Indians, if they 
attempted to cross the river. On September 19th, he sent Captain 
Morse, with his company of thirty-five men of the 16th Infantry, ten 
more men of the 19th Infantry, and Troop " I," 4th Cavalry, all of whom 
had arrived at Fort Dodge, to assist in pursuit south of the Arkansas. 

All the operations along the line of the Arkansas were finally placed 
under direction of Colonel Lewis, whose force at last numbered about 
two hundred and fifty men, only one half of them being cavalry. 

On September 21st, about dark, the united companies of Captain 
Rendlebrock and Captain Morse, numbering about one hundred and fifty 
soldiers, with some fifty citizens, had a skirmish with the Indians on Sand 
Creek, south of the Arkansas, and again upon the following day. 

On the 24th of September the trail of the Indians was found north 
east of Pierceville, showing that they had succeeded in crossing the 
Arkansas, and on the morning of the 25th, Colonel Lewis, in command of 
all the detachments of troops in the immediate neighborhood, started in 
pursuit, his cavalry having only just arrived at Fort Dodge, after a very 
hard forced march from Fort Elliot, Texas. 

Colonel Lewis pursued rapidly in a northwest direction, through 
Kansas, until about five o'clock in the evening, on September 28th, when 
he overtook the Cheyennes on " Punished Woman's Fork " of the Smoky 
Hill River, where the Indians were found very strongly intrenched and 
waiting for the troops. Colonel Lewis attacked them at once, and in 
gallantly leading an assault upon their position, he was mortally wounded, 
dying the same night whilst being conveyed in an ambulance to the 
nearest military post, Fort Wallace, Kansas; three enlisted men were 
wounded, one Indian was found killed, and seventeen dead saddle ponies; 
sixty-two head of stock were captured. 

On the morning of September 28th, the senior surviving officer, 
Captain Mauck, 4th Cavalry, continued the pursuit and reached the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad, on the morning of September 29th, the Indians 
having succeeded in passing between the infantry detachments patrolling 
the line of that road, and having crossed the track near Carlyle, Kansas, 
during the night of September 28th. 

All the troops on the line of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, under com- 
mand of Colonel Jeff. C. Davis, 23d Infantry, were then pushed north- 
ward in pursuit, as was also the cavalry under Captain Mauck, but the 
Indians tore through the country, murdering and devastating the settle- 
ments on the Beaver, the Solomon and the Republican, killing every 



92 



settler they encountered, remounting themselves with some two hundred 
and fifty horses stolen on the way, and abandoning about sixty worn 
out ponies in crossing the state of Kansas. 

On November 11th, the Governor of Kansas in writing* informed the 
Honorable Secretary of War that in this raid through his state the Chey- 
ennes had murdered over forty men and had ravished many women. 

Simultaneously with the escape from Fort Reno, of this party of 
Northern Cheyennes, under "Dull Knife" and other chiefs, a band of one 
hundred and eighty-two surrendered Northern Cheyennes, from Fort 
Keogh, Montana, were also moving, with a small military escort, towards 
the Indian Territory' , to be located on the same reservation at Fort Reno. 
These Indians were at once halted at Fort Sidney, Nebraska, and for a 
time serious apprehensions were felt that they might learn of the escape 
of their people from the Indian Territory, and attempt to unite with them. 

The utmost activity prevailed on the part of the few troops which 
could be collected upon the line of the Union Pacific Railway, and a train 
of cars was kept read}' at Sidney, with steam up, to rapidly throw all that 
could then be assembled, ( about one hundred and forty infantry and 
cavalry, under Major Thornburgh, 4th Infant^,) upon any point on the- 
road where the fugitives from the south might attempt to cross. General 
Merritt, with the 5th Cavalry, was ordered to move as rapidlv as possible 
to Fort Laramie, and Colonel Carlton, with the 3d Cavalry, to Fort 
Robinson, while other troops in the Department also joined in the 
pursuit. 

In spite of all precautions, however, on October 4th the Cheyennes 
crossed the Union Pacific Railway at Alkali Station, a considerable 
distance east of Sidney. Within an hour after receipt of the news. Major 
Thornburgh, with the troops at Sidney, were on board of a train, hasten- 
ing toward the place of the crossing 1 . Captain Mauck, with the troops 
following on the trail from the Department of the Missouri, arrived only 
a few hours later. Major Thornburgh, with his small detachment of 
cavalry and mounted infantry, pushed ahead rapidly upon the trail, the 
rest of his infantry following* in wagons as fast as they could, through a 
very difficult country, selected by the Indians, full of high hills of soft 
sand and destitute of water and grass. All of Thornburgh's wagons were 
soon abandoned and his troops pressed on, from October 6th, to October 
10th, with only such supplies as could be carried on their horses. On 
October 10th, Thornburgh's command, wholly out of rations, joined a 
column of five troops of the 3d Cavalry, under Major Carlton, near the 
Niobrara River where, finding further immediate pursuit impracticable, 
the two commands marched to Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, having suffered 
severely for want of food and water, and being completely worn out by 
the hard pursuit through the sand hills. Captain Mauck's command was 
exhausted by their long march all the way from Texas and their rapid 



93 



chase of the fugitives, so they moved to Fort Sidney, whence they con- 
ducted the Northern Cheyenne prisoners, held there, to the Indian 
Territory. 

On October 15th, the commanding officer at Fort Robinson tele- 
graphed that Indians had run off stock in that vicinity, so Major Carlton's 
column of the 3d Cavalry started from Camp Sheridan for Fort Robinson. 
The same day the commanding officer of Fort Sidney reported the capture 
of two Cheyennes, by a party of cow boys, on Snake Creek; the prisoners 
stated the fugitives had intended to reach the Cheyennes supposed to be 
at Fort Keogh, Montana, where, if permitted to stay, they would them- 
selves surrender, otherwise that they should try to join Sitting Bull who 
still remained in the British Possessions. These prisoners also stated, 
through Mr. Ben Clarke, Cheyenne Interpreter, that they had lost fifteen 
killed in the various fights subsequent to their escape from Fort Reno. 

The fugitives having now eluded capture in both the Departments of 
the Missouri and the Platte, the troops in the Department of Dakota 
were added to the pursuing forces, and on October 17th, Major Tilford, 
with nine troops of the 7th Cavalry, two companies of the 1st, and two of 
the 11th Infantry, numbering four hundred and thirty enlisted men, 
reached Camp Sheridan, from Bear Buttes, (Fort Meade,) Dakota. 

On October 18th, Acting Indian Agent Tibbetts, Red Cloud Agency, 
reported the capture, by Red Cloud's Indians, of a party of ten of the 
fugitives. On October 21st, Major Carlton reported that " American 
Horse," an Agency Indian, expressed the opinion that two parties of the 
Cheyennes had escaped northward, but that a third party still remained 
in the Sand Hills, and that the Agency Indians wanted to catch them, if 
they could keep their captured arms and horses. Major Carlton detached 
a force in search of this party, and on October 23d, Captain J. B. John- 
son, commanding Troops "B" and "D," 3d Cavalry, captured one hun- 
dred and forty-nine of the Cheyennes and one hundred and forty head of 
stock: Chiefs " Dull Knife," " Old Crow " and " Wild Hog," were among 
the prisoners. Their ponies were taken away, together with such arms 
as could then be found, but the prisoners said they would die, rather than 
be taken back to the Indian Territory. On October 25th, when told they 
must go to Fort Robinson, regarding this as a step toward the Indian 
Territory, they began digging rifle pits and constructing breastworks in 
their camp; a fight seemed inevitable, but by great coolness and good 
judgment, on the part of the officers, a collision was prevented : rein- 
forcements, with two pieces of artillery arrived, when the Indians yielded 
and accompanied the troops to Fort Robinson, where all arms which 
could be found remaining, were taken from them and the prisoners were 
confined in an empty set of barracks. The remainder of the fugitives, 
under " Little Wolf," succeeded in making their escape, by scattering 



94 



among the sand hills, where a dense snow covered their trail, though troops 
kept up the search until numbers of the soldiers were badly frozen. 

On October 5th, the commanding officer Fort Clark, Texas, reported 
that one boy and three girls, belonging to a family named Dowdy, were 
killed by Indians at a ranch on Johnson's Fork of the Gaudaloupe, 
Texas. 

October 22d, Major G. Hges, 7th Infantry, with a detachment of 
troops from Fort Benton, Montana, captured a camp of thirty-five half- 
breed Indians, with eighty horses and fourteen guns, trespassers in Mon- 
tana, from the British Possessions. The same day, John Sanders, a stage 
driver, was killed near Flat Rocks, Texas. (Reported by the command- 
ing officer of Fort Stockton, Texas.) 

November 27th, the commanding officer of Fort Ellis, Montana, re- 
ported that " Ten Doy," a friendly Indian, had arrested seven hostile 
Bannocks, disarmed them and sent them under an Indian guard, to Col- 
onel Miles, at Tongue River. 



18 7 9. 



The Northern Cheyennes held in confinement at Fort Robinson, were 
informed that the Indian Department had directed their return to the 
country from which they had escaped ; only a few of the prisoners, how- 
ever, expressed a willingness to go, and upon attempting to remove 
their effects from the prison room, were forcibly detained there by the 
other Indians who, fearing punishment for the crimes which they had 
committed during their flight, were determined to die, rather than be 
taken back to the south, again. 

On January 9th it was decided to arrest " Wild Hog," the principal 
disturber, and he was securely ironed only after a very severe struggle, 
in which a soldier was stabbed. The Indians in the building used as a 
prison, immediately barricaded the doors and covered the windows, to 
conceal their movements, tearing up the floor and making rifle-pits to 
command all the entrances. At first it was supposed the Indians had 
only knives, but when captured they had also succeeded in concealing 
some pistols and carbines; armed with slings and other weapons, their 
prison room was described in an official report as "like a den of rattle- 
snakes," into which it was certain death for any white man to enter. 

About ten o'clock on the night of January 10th, while six sentinels 
were on guard around the prison building, shots were fired from the 
windows, killing two of the sentinels and wounding a corporal in the 
guard room. Simultaneously a rush was made from all the windows, 
the Indians dashing out resolved to kill or be killed. The guard and 
the troops of the garrison gave chase, the Indians fleeing toward the 
creek near the post, and keeping up an incessant fire upon their pursuers. 
All refused to surrender, when called upon to do so, and in the various 
struggles which took place, altogether five soldiers were killed and seven 
wounded ; thirty-two Indians were killed and seventy-one were recap- 
tured. The pursuit of the remainder was continued, and on January 
11th, about twelve miles from the post, they were overtaken in a strongly 
intrenched position, where skirmishing was kept up all day, the Indians 
appearing to have plenty of ammunition. On January 13th, Lieuten- 
ant Simpson, of the 3d Cavalry, attacked them and had one corporal 
killed ; later in the day he struck them again near the Hat Creek road, 
where he had another enlisted man wounded. On January 14th the 
Indians were again attacked by the troops, in a strongly intrenched place, 



96 



about twenty miles from Fort Robinson ; shells were fired into their 
position, but no damage appeared to be done and during the night they 
again succeeded in making their escape. Of the fugitives only forty-five 
now remained unaccounted for by death or capture ; of these nineteen 
were warriors, and all were evidently bent upon joining "Little Wolf's" 
band from which they had become separated whilst escaping from the 
Indian Territory. 

On January 18th, a lot of horses were taken from a ranch on the 
Sidney road, believed to be stolen by some of Little Wolfs band, and 
troops from Fort D. A. Russell were sent in pursuit. 

On January 20th, Major Evans with Troops "B" and "D," 3d 
Cavalry, intercepted the Cheyennes who had left Fort Robinson, strongly 
posted upon some cliffs ; they escaped, however, during the night, toward 
the Red Cloud Agency, but Captain Wessells, with Troops "A," "E," 
"F," and "H," 3d Cavalry, overtook them again on January 22d, near 
the telegraph line from Fort Robinson to Hat Creek, where they were 
intrenched in a gully. They refused all terms of surrender, so Captain 
Wessells' force charged them and killed or captured the entire party : 
Captain Wessells and two men were wounded and three enlisted men 
were killed ; twenty-three Cheyennes were killed and nine were cap- 
tured, three of whom were wounded. The prisoners reported that "Dull 
Knife" had been killed by a shell, in the artillery attack upon their 
position a few days before. 

February 13th, "Victoria," with twenty-two Warm Spring Apache 
Indians who had made their escape when about being taken to the San 
Carlos Agency, Arizona, surrendered to Lieutenant Merritt, 9th Cavalry, 
at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico ; after his escape, Victoria had been to 
old Mexico, and now desired tu send to the Fort Stanton Indian reserva- 
tion, where he believed there were other Indians belonging to his band. 
He was given a pass to send two of his Indians, and in a few days a total 
of thirty-nine Warm Spring Indians were gathered at Ojo Caliente. 
Learning, however, that the whole band were to be sent to the Stanton 
reservation, on April 15th they all broke away again from Ojo Caliente 
and escaped to the San Mateo Mountains, New Mexico. Two troops of 
the 9th Cavalry and one company of Indian scouts were sent in pursuit, 
followed Victoria into Arizona whence, joined by other Indians from the 
San Carlos Agency, they all succeeded in escaping into old Mexico. 

March loth a Mexican herder was killed about fifty miles from Fort 
Ewell, Texas. 

March 25th, near Box Elder Creek, in the Department of Dakota, 
Lieutenant Clark, 2d Cavalry, with Troops "E" and "I," 2d Cavalry, a 
detachment of infantry, a field gun and some Indian scouts, overtook 
"Little Wolf" and his band of Northern Cheyennes who had escaped 
from Fort Reno, Indian Territory, the previous autumn, and had thus far 



97 



eluded every attempt at capture. The Indians were persuaded to sur- 
render without fighting and gave up thirty-five lodges, with all their 
arms and about two hundred and fifty ponies, and marched with the 
troops to Fort Keogh, Montana. The band numbered thirty-three men, 
forty-three squaws and thirty-eight children. 

For murdering two members of this band, a party of eight Indians 
had been driven out of Little Wolf's camp previously, and this small 
party, on the 5th of April, attacked a signal sergeant and a private soldier 
of the 2d Cavalry, on Mizpah Creek, killing the private, severely 
wounding the sergeant and capturing their horses. Sergeant Glover, 
Troop " B," 2d Cavalry, with ten men and three Indian scouts from 
Fort Keogh, pursued this small party and captured them all on April 
10th. 

March 1st, several head of stock were stolen by Indians from 
McDonald and Dillon's ranch near Powder River, Montana. March 4th, 
. twenty-three head of stock were also stolen from Countryman's ranch, 
near the mouth of the Stillwater. March 28th, Indians attacked two white 
men, near the mouth of the Big Horn River, killed one, named H. D. 
Johnson, and wounded the other, named James Stearns ; a man named 
Dave Henderson was also killed the same day, near Buffalo Station, on 
the Yellowstone. Horses were also run off from Pease's Bottom, near the 
mouth of Buffalo Creek, and sixty-seven ponies were stolen from the 
Crows at their agency. The Indians committing these depredations 
were ascertained to be Sioux from the north, with a few Nez Perces ; 
Captains Mix and Gregg with their troops of the 2d Cavalry were 
dispatched' in pursuit, but after a very hard chase were unable to over- 
take the marauders. 

April 4th, the commanding officer of Fort Ellis, Montana, reported 
that Indians had stolen twenty-five or thirty horses, the previous night, 
from Countryman's ranch on the Yellowstone, and that a party of citizens 
and some friendly Crow Indians had gone in pursuit. On April 5th, the 
same officer reported that Sioux and half-breed Nez Perces had raided 
the Crow Indians on the Stillwater. On April 6th, Indians also attacked 
the ranch of Sebezzo and Peterson, near Powder River, killed the 
former, wounded the latter and ran off eight or ten head of stock. 
The Indians were recognized as Gros Ventres, and came from the 
Northwest Territory. 

On April 10th, the commanding officer of Fort Ellis reported that 
Indians attempted to steal stock at Young's Point, but were discovered 
and driven off; on April 14th, seven horses were stolen by Indians on 
Pryor's Fork ; on April 22 d, the same officer reported that some Crow 
Indian scouts had overtaken a party of Sioux who had stolen horses from 
Countryman's ranch, and had killed one of the hostiles. 

Lieutenant L. H. Loder, 7th Infantry, with fourteen mounted men of 



&8 



the 3d and 7th Infantry, and six Indian scouts, pursued a party of Sioux 
who had been committing depredations, and on April 17th attacked them 
near Careless Creek, at the head of the Musselshell Canon, Montana, and 
killed eight of the hostiles ; two of the scouts were killed and one 
wounded. 

May 3d, Indians ran off twelve head of stock from the east side of the 
Little Big Horn : the commanding officer of Fort Custer sent a detach- 
ment of Crow scouts in pursuit, but the thieves could not be overtaken. 

May 1st, a Mexican teamster was killed between Fort Ewell and 
Corpus Christi, Texas. (Reported by commanding officer Fort Mcintosh, 
Texas.) 

May 18th, John Clarkson was murdered near Van Horn's Wells, 
Texas. (Reported by commanding officer Fort Davis, Texas.) 

May 29th, Captain Beyer with Troop "C," and a detachment of Troop 
"I," 9th Cavalry, attacked Victoria's Apaches in the Miembres Mount- 
ains, New Mexico, captured the camp with all the animals, and wounded 
four Indians, two of them mortally : one enlisted man was killed and two 
wounded. The band fled into old Mexico, five of their number being- 
killed near the San Francisco settlement, New Mexico. 

June 1st, the commanding officer of Fort Clark, Texas, reported that 
the wife and two daughters of N. Colson were killed by Indians, near 
Camp Wood, Texas. 

June 16th, a party of Texans pursued a band of Indians and recap- 
tured nineteen horses which had been stolen near Fort McKavett, Texas. 

June 19th, a party of ten Sioux, with thirty stolen horses, crossed the 
Missouri River about eleven miles above Fort Benton, Montana ; Lieuten- 
ant Van Orsdale, 7th Infantry, with a detachment of eight men caught up 
with five of these Indians, killed one and drove the rest into the " Bad 
Lands." 

June 29th, Indians stole seven head of stock on the Little Big Horn, 
about seven miles from Fort Custer, Montana : some Crow scouts also 
had a fight with a band of Sioux near the head of Alkali Creek, about 
twenty-five miles from Terry's Landing, on the Yellowstone, killed four 
of the hostiles and captured thirty-three ponies : one Crow scout was 
killed and four wounded. 

June 30th, a man named Anglin was killed in a fight with Indians 
near the head waters of the North Concho River, Texas. (Reported by 
the commanding officer of Fort Concho, Texas.) 

July 14th, a Mexican woman, (name unknown,) was killed about four 
miles northeast of Fort Clark, Texas. (Reported by commanding officer 
of Fort Clark.) 

July 27th, Captain Courtney, 25th Infantry, with a detachment of ten 
men of Troop "H," 10th Cavalry, had a fight with Indians at the salt 
lakes near the Carrizo Mountains, Texas ; three Indians were wounded, 



99 



two of them mortally, and ten ponies were captured ; two enlisted men 
were wounded. 

Many depredations having been recently committed by Indians in the 
vicinity of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, it was ascertained that 
large numbers of hostiles, half-breeds and foreign Indians, from British 
Columbia, including the Indians under Sitting Bull, were roaming upon 
United States territory, south of the boundary line. From a number of 
reliable persons who had seen the main hostile camp, this was estimated 
at not less than five thousand Indians, of whom two thousand were 
warriors, with twelve thousand horses. Half-breed Indians had also been 
trading with the hostiles and furnishing them with ammunition, so in 
July Colonel Miles was sent from Fort Keogh, Montana, with a strong 
force to break up their camp, separate the doubtful Indians from those 
avowedly hostile, and force the foreign Indians to return north of the 
boundary. 

Colonel Miles' force consisted of seven companies 5th Infantry, seven 
troops 2d Cavalry, a detachment of artillery and some friendly Indian 
and white scouts. At Fort Peck he was joined by two companies of the 
6th Infantry, and his entire command then numbered thirty-three 
officers, six hundred and forty-three enlisted men and one hundred and 
forty-three Indian and white scouts. 

The hostiles consisted of the Uncapapas, under Sitting Bull, the Min- 
neconjous, under "Black Eagle," the Sans Arcs, under " Spotted Eagle," 
and the Ogallalas, under "Big Road" and " Broad Tail." 

Colonel Miles reported that the depredations of the hostiles hack 
resulted in the killing of not less than twenty men and the stealing of 
three hundred head of stock, all of which had been taken to the hostile 
camp. 

As a preliminary step the Yanktonnais camp of about three or four 
hundred lodges, were first moved to the south side of the Missouri, about 
June 23d. 

On July 17th, the advance guard of Colonel Miles' column, consisting 
of a troop of the 2d Cavalry, a company of the 5th Infantry and about 
fifty Indian scouts, commanded by Lieutenant Clark, 2d Cavalry, had a 
sharp fight with from three to four hundred Indians, between Beaver and 
Frenchmen's Creeks ; the Indians were pursued for twelve miles, when 
the advance became surrounded : Colonel Miles moved forward rapidly 
and the hostiles fled north of Milk River. Several of the enemy were 
killed and a large amount of their property abandoned; two enlisted men 
and one Indian scout were wounded and three Indian scouts killed. 
Sitting Bull himself was present in this engagement. 

On July 31st, Colonel Miles reported that the main hostile camp had 
retreated north, across the boundary, to Wood Mountain ; the column 



100 



followed and halted on the main trail at the British line, whence it 
returned to Milk River. 

Attention was then turned to the camps of the half-breeds which had 
formed a cordon of out-posts around the main hostile camp, furnishing 
the latter with the supplies of war. On August 4th, Captain Ovenshine, 
5th Infantry, with a portion of Colonel Miles' command, arrested a band 
of half-breeds on Porcupine Creek, capturing one hundred and forty- 
three carts and one hundred and ninety-three horses. On August 5th, 
four camps of half-breeds were arrested, numbering three hundred and 
eight carts. On August 8th, Colonel Miles reported the total number of 
half-breeds arrested by various detachments, eight hundred and twenty- 
nine, with six hundred and sixty-five carts. 

On August 14th, Lieutenant Colonel Whistler, 5th Infantry, with 
part of Colonel Miles' command, captured a band of fifty-seven Indians 
with one hundred ponies, who had left the Rosebud Agency and were in 
the act of crossing the Missouri, near Poplar Creek, on their way to join 
Sitting Bull in the north. 

On August 28th it was officially reported that extensive fires were 
raging in the mountains west of Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, the work 
of Indian incendiaries. On September 10th, Mr. N. C. Meeker, agent 
for the White River Utes, wrote to the Governor of Colorado that 
Indians had fired upon an agency employe, whilst plowing, that his 
house had been attacked, himself driven out of doors and injured con- 
siderably. Mr. Meeker stated that the lives of the people at the agency 
were in danger and that at least one hundred soldiers should be sent 
there to protect the people ; he therefore requested the governor of 
Colorado to confer with General Pope, commanding the Department 
of the Missouri, and with Senator Teller of Colorado, with the object of 
obtaining the required aid. 

On September 16th, directions were given by the Honorable Secretary 
of War, in compliance with request from the Interior Department, for 
the nearest military commander to send a force to the White River 
Agency, to protect the agent and to arrest the ringleaders of the Indians 
who had committed the outrages reported. Accordingly General Crook, 
commanding the Department of the Platte, ordered Major T. T. Thorn- 
burgh, 4th Infantry, with Troops " D " and " F," 5th Cavalry, " E," 3d 
Cavalry, and Company " E," 4th Infantry, to proceed to the White River 
Agency, Colorado. This force, numbering about two hundred officers 
and men, left Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming, September 21st, and reached 
Fortification Creek, Colorado, September 25th. The infantry company 
numbering about thirty men was left there, to establish a supply camp, 
and the cavalry proceed to Bear Creek, September 26th. During the 
afternoon of September 26th, several Ute Indians of prominence came 
into the cavalry camp, talked freely with Major Thornburgh, on the 



101 



subject of the troops coming to the agency, and departed about night, 
apparently in good humor. At Williams Fork of Bear River, the next 
day, September 27th, an employe of the White River Agency, named 
Eskridge, accompanied by several prominent Ute Indians, arrived with 
a letter from the agent, Mr. Meeker, to Major Thornburgh, stating that 
the Indians at the agency were greatly excited and wished the advance 
of the troops stopped, though agreeing to a proposition that the com- 
manding officer with five soldiers should come to the agency. Major 
Thornburgh replied that he would camp his command at some convenient 
place, the following day, and proceed on September 29th to the agency, 
with only five men and a guide, as suggested ; but he also renewed a 
former request for Mr. Meeker with such chiefs as the latter might select, 
to come out and meet the command on the road. 

On September 29th, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Meeker 
accordingly wrote that he would leave the agency, with several chiefs, 
on the following morning, to meet Major Thornburgh. 

On September 28th the cavalry camped at Deer Creek, and on the 
29th reached Milk River, about ten o'clock in the morning. After 
watering the horses, Troop " D," 5th Cavalry, was left to continue the 
march along the road with the wagons, while Major Thornburgh, with 
the rest of the cavalry, turned off from the road, taking a trail which bore 
away to the left. After placing a mile between themselves and the 
wagons, the troops with Major Thornburgh, in crossing a high ridge 
commanding the main road along which the wagons were traveling, came 
suddenly upon the Indians in heavy force. 

The whole attitude of the Indians was hostile, so Major Thornburgh 
at once dismounted and deployed his men, but at the same time tried to 
open communication with the Indians. His overtures were, however, 
met by a volley and a hot engagement at once began. The Indians had 
not only the advantage of position but were superior in numbers to the 
troops in advance, so Major Thornburgh determined to withdraw and 
join the escort with the wagon train. The skirmish line retired slowly, 
leading their horses, but returning a fire which did great execution 
among the Indians. Failing to break the line of skirmishers, the Indians 
attempted to get between them and the wagon train, which had gone 
into park on the right bank of Milk River. The Indians took a strong 
position commanding Thornburgh's line of retreat, and a charge by about 
twenty men under Captain Payne was ordered, so as to clear a command- 
ing knoll of Indians, reach the train and arrange for its protection. This 
was done and Major Thornburgh himself started for the train soon after 
giving this order, but he was shot and instantly killed, just after crossing 
the river and when within five hundred yards of the wagons. 

The line of skirmishers in front commanded by Captain Lawson, 3d 
Cavalry, steadily fell back toward . the wagons, their retreat skillfully 



102 



covered by a detachment under Lieutenant Cherry of the oth Cavalry. 
The wagons were formed into an elliptical corral, about two hundred 
yards from the river, the side toward the stream being exposed to a 
furious fire from the Indians who were making determined efforts to 
capture and destroy the train. The animals were crowded in the space 
formed by the wagons ; about twenty or more which were wounded 
were led out upon the open side of the corral, toward the Indians and 
shot there, to form a slight defence for some of the men acting as sharp- 
shooters ; the wagons were unloaded and with their contents slight 
breastworks were hastily made, the Indians keeping up a most destruc- 
tive fire under which officers and men rapidly fell. 

A high wind was blowing, at this time, and the Indians set fire to the 
tall grass and sage bush down the valley, the flames spreading rapidly 
toward the troops, igniting bundles, grain sacks, wagon covers and other 
combustibles, threatening the train with entire destruction. The Indians 
attacked the command furiously, at this critical moment, but the troops 
succeded in extinguishing the flames among the wagons, with considera- 
ble loss to themselves in killed and wounded. The Indian supply train 
of Mr. John Gordon was parked, within seventy-five yards of the posi- 
tion of the troops ; to prevent the Indians obtaining a lodgement there, 
the train was ordered set on fire and destroyed. 

From three o'clock in the afternoon until nightfall, the Indians kept 
up a constant fire upon the position of the troops, killing fully three- 
fourths of their animals. At dark a large body of Indians charged down 
from behind Gordon's burning train, delivering volley after volley, but 
they were repulsed with the loss of several warriors seen to fall from 
their saddles. 

During the night a supply of water was obtained, better intrench- 
ments dug, the wounded cared for, dead animals dragged away, ammuni- 
tion and rations distributed and, at midnight, couriers slipped away 
toward the railroad, with dispatches reporting what had occurred and 
asking for aid. 

The whole of the following day, September 30th, the Indians kept up 
an almost incessant fire, killing all of the remaining animals excepting 
fourteen mules ; during the night of September 30th, the Indians sus- 
pended firing, but after that time gave the troops no rest. At night on 
October 1st, a small party, while procuring water, were fired upon at close 
range and one man wounded, but the guards returned the fire, killing 
one of the Indians. 

On October 1st, Captain Dodge and Lieutenant Hughes, with Troop 
" D," 9th Cavalry, who had been scouting in that section of country, met 
the couriers who had left the intrenched position on Milk River. Appa- 
rently camping for the night, to deceive any Indians near him, Captain 
Dodge issued two hundred and twenty-five rounds ammunition and three 



103 



days rations to each man, and after dark pushed for Milk River, with but 
two officers, thirty-five men and four citizens. At four o'clock on the 
morning of October 2d, they reached the main road about five miles from 
the intrenchment on Milk River, and found the dead bodies of three 
men, near a train loaded with annuity goods, burned by the Indians. 
Half an hour later Captain Dodge arrived at the intrenchments and suc- 
ceeded in forming a junction with the troops there. Captain Dodge was 
hardly inside the trenches, when the Indians opened a fire which was 
kept up at intervals for the next three days, killing all but four of 
Dodge's forty-two animals, and these four were wounded. 

The following were the casualties in Major Thornburgh's command : 
killed, Major T. T. Thornburgh, 4th Infantry, and nine enlisted men. 
Wounded, Captain Payne and Second Lieutenant Paddock, 5th Cavalry, 
Acting Assistant Surgeon Grimes and forty enlisted men. Wagonmaster 
McKinstry, guide Lowry and one teamster were killed and two teamsters 
wounded ; total, twelve killed and forty-three wounded. The strength 
of the Indians, who were well armed and supplied with abundant ammu- 
nition, was estimated in the official report of the affair at from three 
hundred to three hundred and fifty ; the Indians themselves afterward 
admitted a loss of thirty-seven killed. 

The couriers sent out on the night of September 29th succeeded in 
getting through safely. As quickly as possible after receipt of orders at 
Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, Colonel W. Merritt, with Troops " A," 
" B," " I," and " M," 5th Cavalry, was upon a special train for Rawlins. 
From this point, by a march of almost unparalleled rapidity, in something 
over forty-eight hours Colonel Merritt's column, consisting of three 
hundred and fifty men, one hundred and thirty-one of whom were 
infantry following in wagons, marched one hundred and seventy miles 
over a most difficult road and reached the command at Milk River, at 
half-past five o'clock in the morning on October 5th. 

In anticipation of a general war with the Utes, a force consisting of 
nearly two thousand cavalry and infantry, was hurried to Rawlins ; of 
these, 1,428 took the field, with Colonel Merritt, while 526 remained 
at Rawlins, under command of Colonel Brackett, 3d Cavalry. Another 
force, aggregating 1,109 cavalry and infantry, commanded by Colonels E. 
Hatch, 9th Cavalry, R. S. Mackenzie, 4th Cavalry, and G. P. Buell, 15th 
Infantry, was also despatched to the Ute country, from the Department 
of the Missouri, to watch the confederated bands of Utes in Southern 
Colorado, should they attempt to join the White River Utes, in the 
hostilities which the latter had begun. 

Colonel Merritt's light advance column having reached Milk River, 
the crippled command there with the wounded were sent back to the 
railroad at Rawlins. Other troops having joined Colonel Merritt, making 
his force strong enough for an advance against the hostiles, he proceeded 



104 



to the White River Agency, the Indians all having disappeared before the 
troops. It was found that the Indians had burned and utterly destroyed 
the agency, had killed the employes and the agent, Mr. Meeker, and had 
carried off all the females into the horrors of savage captivity. Colonel 
Merritt's command buried the bodies of seven men, including that of 
Mr. Meeker. 

Colonel Merritt was about moving against the hostiles, when his 
operations were suspended at the request of the Indian Department, 
pending special negotiations with the Utes for release of the captive 
females and surrender of the ringleaders in the late outrages. 

While these negotiations were in progress, however, on October 20th 
a reconhoitering party from Colonel Merritt's command, under Lieutenant 
Hall, 5th Cavalry, was attacked by the Indians about twenty miles from 
White River ; they defended themselves until night, when they suc- 
ceeded in returning to camp, but with the loss of Lieutenant W. B. 
Weir of the Ordnance Department and the chief scout Humme, both of 
whom were killed ; two Indians were reported killed by Lieutenant HalPs 
party during the fight. 

In September New Mexico was again raided by Victoria with his 
band of Indians from old Mexico, reinforced by Mescaleros and some 
Chiricahuas. 

On September 4th the herd guard of Troop "E," 9th Cavalry, Captain 
Hooker, commanding, were attacked near Ojo Caliente, New Mexico ; 
eight men were killed and forty-six horses captured by the Indians. 

On September 17th, Major Morrow, 9th Cavalry, reported that near 
Hillsboro, New Mexico, a fight occurred between a party of citizens and 
about one hundred Apaches ; the hostiles killed ten of the citizens and 
captured all of their stock. 

On September 18th, Captain Dawson, with two troops of the 9th Cav- 
alry, struck Victoria with about one hundred and forty Apaches, at the 
head of Las Animas River, New Mexico ; Captain Beyer, with two 
more troops of the 9th Cavalry, arrived and took part in the fight, but 
the Indians having the advantage of a very strong position, the troops 
were obliged to withdraw, during the night, with a loss of five men killed 
and one wounded, thirty-two horses killed and six wounded, and two 
Navajoe scouts and one citizen killed. 

On September 26th, Major Morrow, 9th Cavalry, with six officers and 
one hundred and ninety-one men, attacked Victoria not far from Ojo 
Caliente, New Mexico, and after two days of fighting, killed three 
Indians and captured sixty horses and mules, among them twelve or 
more of those previously lost by Captain Hooker. On September 30th, 
one of Morrow's videttes was killed, whilst on post, the hostiles again 
retreating before the troops. On October 1st the scouts captured a 
squaw and a child, from whom the position of the Indians was learned, 



105 



and by a quick night march, Victoria's strongly fortified camp was cap- 
tured, the Indians escaping, however, in the dark. 

Morrow's force, reduced to less than one hundred available men, 
continued pursuit of the hostiles, following them, by very hard marches, 
into old Mexico, and on October 27th again overtook Victoria, about 
twelve miles from the Corralitos River, Mexico. With about forty men 
Morrow charged the Indian breastworks, in the moonlight, and drove the 
Indians from them, losing himself one scout killed and two wounded. 
The command had been three days and nights without water, ammunition 
was nearly exhausted and men and animals were utterly worn out, so the 
troops returned, reaching Fort Bayard, New Mexico, November 3d. 



1 8 80. 



On January 2d, Victoria and his Indians were again reported raiding 
in southern New Mexico. All the cavalry in that section were pushed 
after him and on January 12th, a force commanded by Major Morrow, 
9th Cavalry, struck Victoria near the head of Puerco River, killing and 
wounding several of the hostiles, the troops losing one enlisted man 
killed and one Indian scout wounded ; the fight lasted from two o'clock 
in the afternoon until sunset, when the Indians escaped. On January 
17th, Major Morrow's force again struck Victoria in the San Mateo 
Mountains, New Mexico, and drove him from his position, but with what 
loss could not be learned. Lieutenant French, 9th Cavalry, was killed 
and two scouts wounded. 

February 3d, a war party of Uncapapas attacked some citizens on 
Powder River, Montana ; Sergeant Glover, Troop " B," 2d Cavalry, with 
eight men and eleven Indian scouts, pursued the hostiles for sixty-five 
miles and surrounded them near Pumpkin Creek, killing one Indian and 
wounding two, losing one soldier killed and one wounded ; three Indians 
were prevented from escaping until the arrival of Captain Snyder, with a 
company of the 5th Infantry, when they all surrendered. 

February 6th, a band of Sioux stole fifteen horses from settlers in 
Pease's Bottom, on the Yellowstone, and a number of horses from camp 
at Terry's Landing ; Crow Indian scouts pursued and overtook the 
Sioux, near Porcupine Creek and killed or recaptured all of the stolen 
stock. 

March 3d, Companies " I " and " K," 5th Infantry, left Fort Keogh, 
Montana, in pursuit of hostile Indians north of the Yellowstone, and on 
March 8th, after a continuous gallop of forty miles, Company U K" suc- 
ceeded in surrounding the Indians, captured thirteen ponies and sixteen 
mules. 

March 4th, two citizens were attacked by Indians on Alkali Creek, 
Montana, and one of the men wounded. 

March 5th, Lieutenant Miller, 5th Infantry, with nine soldiers and 
eight Indian scouts, attacked a band of hostile Indians, thirty miles west 
of the Rosebud, Montana, killed three of the hostiles and eight of the 
ponies, captured some arms and a large amount of ammunition, and 
destroyed the hostile camp; two Indian scouts were killed in the affair; the 
Indians escaped across the Yellowstone, and were closely pursued by Cap- 
tains Baldwin, 5th Infantry, and Hamilton, 2d Cavalry. On March 9th, 



108 



Captain Baldwin overtook the Indians, on Little Porcupine Creek, chased 
thern for thirty miles and captured all their animals, excepting those on 
which they escaped. 

March 13th, the commanding officer of Fort Davis, Texas, reported 
the killing of a Mexican boy, a sheep herder, near Russell's ranch, Texas. 

March 24th, a party of thirty or forty Sioux ran of about thirty ponies 
belonging to the enlisted Crow scouts at Fort Custer, Montana ; Captain 
J. Mix with Troop " M," 2d Cavalry, numbering forty-four officers and 
men, started in pursuit and after traveling sixty-five miles in eleven 
hours, overtook and engaged the hostiles, recapturing sixteen of the 
stolen stock. These Indians were also pursued by Lieutenant Coale, 
with Troop " C," 2d Cavalry, from Fort Custer, and by Captain Huggins, 
with Troop " E," 2d Cavalry, from Fort Keogh ; Captain Huggins sur- 
prised the camp, xA.pril 1st, captured five Indians, forty-six ponies and 
some arms ; Lieutenant Coale had an engagement, April 1st, on a fork 
of O'Fallon's Creek, when one enlisted man was killed. 

The Mescalero Agency at the Fort Stanton, New Mexico, Reservation, 
had largely served as a base of supplies and recruits for the raiding 
parties of Victoria, and it was determined, with the consent of the Indian 
Department, to disarm and dismount the Indians there. Pursuant to 
directions from Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri, Generals 
Pope and Ord, commanding the Departments of the Missouri and Texas, 
arranged that a force under Colonel E. Hatch, 9th Cavalry, numbering 
four hundred cavalry, sixty infantry and seventy-five Indian scouts, 
should arrive at the Mescalero Agency simultaneously with Colonel 
Grierson, 10th Cavalry, and a force of the 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry, 
numbering two hundred and eighty officers and men, from the Depart- 
ment of Texas. 

On March 31st, Colonel Grierson's column, whilst passing Pecos Falls, 
Texas, learned of the stealing of stock from citizens in that vicinity, the 
previous night, and Lieutenant Esterly, with a detachment from Troops 
F " and " L," 10th Cavalry, was sent in pursuit. On the third day 
Lieutenant Esterly overtook the Indians, one of whom was killed and 
eight head of stolen stock were recovered. 

On April 6th, Colonel Grierson detached Captain Lebo, with Troop 
" K," 10th Cavalry, to scout near the line of march, and on April 9th 
Captain Lebo attacked a camp of Indians at Shakehand Spring, about 
forty miles south of the Penasco, Texas, killed the chief of the band, 
captured four squaws and one child, and between twenty and thirty 
head of stock, destroyed the camp and recovered a Mexican boy, named 
Coyetano Garcia, who had been taken captive by the Indians. 

On April 8th, Colonel Hatch's command struck Victoria in a strongly 
fortified position in the San Andreas Mountains, New Mexico ; three 
Indians were killed, Captain Carroll, 9th Cavalry, and seven men were 



109 



wounded and twenty-five horses and mules belonging to the troops were 
killed ; many of the Mescaleros and some Comanches were in the fight ; 
their trail was followed to the Mescalero Agency. 

On April 16th, Colonels Hatch and Grierson, having duly arrived at 
the Mescalero Agency, the attempt was made to disarm and dismount 
the Indians, but a desperate effort was made by the Indians to escape, 
and ten warriors were killed, some forty more escaping ; about two 
hundred ponies and mules were taken away from the Indians and two 
hundred and fifty Indians, men, women and children, were taken into 
the agency ; from twenty to thirty guns, carbines and pistols were cap- 
tured from the Indians and turned over to their agent. Major Morrow, 
with a portion of Colonel Hatch's force, pursued the escaping Indians 
and overtook them in Dog Canon, killed three warriors and captured 
twenty-five more head of stock. One party of the fugitives was pursued 
and attacked by a detachment of Troop " L," 10th Cavalry, commanded 
by Lieutenant Maxon ; one Indian was killed and five horses captured. 

May 13th, the commanding officer of Fort Davis, Texas, reported 
that Mr. Jas. Grant and Mrs. H. Graham were killed, and H. Graham 
and D. Murphy wounded by Indians in Bass' Canon, Texas. 

After the disarming and dismounting of the Indians at the Mescalero 
Agency, Colonel Hatch began again the pursuit of Victoria, assisted by 
troops from the Department of Arizona, but the campaign resolved itself 
into a chase of the hostiles from one range of mountains to another, with 
frequent skirmishes, but no decisive fights, until the Indians again 
escaped into old Mexico, the Mexican government declining to allow 
further pursuit on their territory. One fight took place on May 24th, at 
the head of Polomas River, New Mexico, when fifty-five Indians were 
reported killed. On June 5th, Major Morrow, with four troops 9th Cav- 
alry, struck the hostiles at Cook's Canon, New Mexico, killed ten and 
wounded three ; one of the killed was a son of Victoria ; a quantity of 
stock was also captured. 

June 11th, Lieutenant Mills, 24th Infantry, with a detachment of 
Pueblo scouts, en route to join Colonel Grierson's command, was attacked 
by Indians in Canon Viejo, southwest of Fort Davis, Texas,, his principal 
guide killed and several horses wounded. 

July 31st, the commanding officer of Fort Davis, Texas, reported that 
E. C. Baker, stage driver, and Frank Wyant, a passenger, were killed 
by Victoria's Indians eight miles west of Eagle Springs, Texas. 

July 31st, Colonel Grierson, 10th Cavalry, with a small party of six 
men, was attacked by Victoria's Indians between Quitman and Eagle 
Springs, Texas ; Lieutenant Finley, with a detachment of fifteen men of 
Troop " G," 10th Cavalry, came up, engaged the Indians and held them 
in check until the arrival of Captain Viele and Captain Nolan, with two 
troops of the 10th Cavalry, when, in an engagement lasting four hours, 



no 



seven Indians were killed, a large number wounded and the hostiles 
pursued to the Rio Grande. Lieutenant Colladay, 10th Cavalry, was 
wounded and one enlisted man killed ; ten horses of the troops were 
killed and five animals wounded. 

Colonel Grierson's troops continued the pursuit, and on August 3d, a 
detachment of cavalry and scouts had a fight near the Alamo, one soldier 
being wounded and one missing ; several Indians and ponies were shot. 
The same day Captain Lebo with Troop " K," 10th Cavalry, followed an 
Indian trail to the top of the Sierra Diabolo, Texas, captured Victoria's 
supply camp of twenty-five head of cattle, a large quantity of beef and 
other provisions on pack animals, and pursued the Indians to Escondido. 

On August 4th, a detachment of Captain Kennedy's troop of the 10th 
Cavalry, struck the Indians near Bowen Springs, Guadaloupe Mountains, 
Texas, the detachment had one man killed and several horses shot ; 
Captain Kennedy attacked and pursued the hostiles toward the Sacra- 
mento Mountains, killing two Indians and shooting and capturing a few 
ponies. 

On August 6th, the Indians were struck again in Rattlesnake Canon 
and scattered in every direction ; a train guarded by Company " H," 24th 
Infantry, Captain Gilmore, was then attacked by the Indians near this 
point, but the hostiles were repulsed with a loss of one killed and several 
wounded ; altogether four Indians were killed, many were wounded and 
some ponies captured. 

On August 9th, the commanding officer Fort Davis, Texas, reported 
that General Byrne, of Fort Worth, Texas, was killed by Indians near 
old Fort Quitman. 

Ou August 11th, Captain Nolan, with Troops -'K," 8th Cavalry, "A," 
10th Cavalry, some Lipan scouts and Texas rangers, struck Victoria's 
trail and pursued the hostiles to the Rio Grande, twelve miles below 
Quitman, August 13th, when the band were again driven into old 
Mexico. 

August 1st, company " H," 5th Infantry, left camp on Redwater, 
Montana, and marched toward Poplar Creek Agency, Montana. It 
returned to Fort Keogh August 14th, bringing in twenty lodges of 
surrendered hostile Indians. The same day Troop " E," 2d Cavalry, left 
camp on Willow Creek, Montana, and marched to the Missouri River, 
capturing twenty-four lodges of Minneconjous, numbering one hundred 
and forty persons, returning with them to Fort Keogh, August 14th. 

August 16th, Sergeant Devlin, Troop "F," 7th Cavalry, with a de- 
tachment of eight men and three Indian scouts, followed a war party of 
Sioux and and struck them near the folks of the Box Elder Creek, Mon- 
tana, killed two, wounded one and recaptured seven head of stock. 

August 19th, a detachment of Indian scouts struck a war party north 



Ill 



of the mouth of O'Fallon Creek, Montana, and recaptured eleven head of 
stock. 

September 8th, " Big Road " and two hundred Sioux, surrendered to 
the commanding officer of Fort Keogh, Montana. 

October 26th, at Fort Stanton, New Mexico, twenty-four Apaches, 
consisting of seven men and seventeen squaws and children, surrendered 
to the commanding officer at the Mescalero Agency. 

October 29th, a party of from thirty-five to fifty Indians, supposed to 
be a remnant of Victoria's band, attacked a picket party of twelve men 
belonging to the command of Captain Baldwin, 10th Cavalry, near Ojo 
Caliente, Texas ; one Corporal and three private soldiers were killed. 
Captain Baldwin followed the Indians to the Rio Grande, across which 
they escaped. 

November 11th, Lieutenant Kislingbury, 11th Infantry, with a detach- 
ment consisting of twelve men, 2d Cavalry, and ten Crow scouts, was 
attacked by a war party of Sioux near the mouth of the Musselshell, 
Montana, and had one horse killed and three wounded ; one of the 
hostiles was reported killed. 



18 8 1. 



The Indians who had broken away, after the Sioux war of 1876-77, 
and had taken refuge in the British possessions, kept sending out raiding 
parties which committed depredations as far south as the Yellowstone 
and, when pursued by the troops, escaped again into the Northwest 
Territory. 

In September, 1880, a scout named Allison went from Fort Buford to 
communicate with Sitting Bull and other chiefs and, if possible, to induce 
the hostiles to come in and surrender. Allison made several visits to the 
hostiles and numbers came in to Poplar River Agency, Montana, in the 
latter part of 1880. At first these Indians seemed peaceable but, after 
they had collected in force, became turbulent and arrogant, assuming a 
threatening attitude toward the garrison at Poplar River which it became 
necessary, therefore, to increase. 

On December 15th, 1880, Major G. Ilges, 5th Infantry, with five 
mounted companies of his regiment, numbering about one hundred and 
eighty officers and men, left Fort Keogh and after a march of nearly two 
hundred miles through deep snow, with the thermometer ranging from 
ten to thirty-five degrees below zero, reinforced the garrison consisting 
of four companies of the 7th Infantry and one troop of the 7th Cav- 
alry, at Camp Poplar River. 

On January 2d, 1881, leaving one company of infantry and detach- 
ments of three other companies of infantry to guard the camp, Major 
Ilges moved, with a force of about three hundred officers and men, with 
two pieces of artillery, against some camps of Sioux, numbering about 
four hundred, who were located on the opposite side of the Missouri. 
Upon the approach of the troops the Indians fled from their villages and 
took refuge in some timber, from which they were quickly driven by a 
few shells and soon surrendered, to the number of over three hundred, 
under the terms already extended to all the hostiles, viz., that they should 
be disarmed and dismounted. Nearly two hundred ponies were given 
up, together with sixty-nine guns and pistols, as well as the camp 
equipage; eight Indians were killed in the attack and about sixty escaped 
and joined others in the vicinity. On January 9th, twenty additional 
Indians were captured and, on January 29th, eight more lodges, number- 
ing sixty-four people, also surrendered to Major Ilges, with five guns and 
thirteen ponies. There were no casualties to the troops, during these 



114 



operations, but many were very badly frozen through exposure to the 
terrible weather. 

On February 26th, three hundred and twenty-five hostile Sioux from 
what was generally called Sitting Bull's camp, with one hundred and 
fifty ponies and about forty guns and pistols, nearly all the guns being 
Winchester and Henry rifles, surrendered to Major Brotherton, 7th 
Infantry, commanding Fort Buford, Dakota. 

February 12th, Major Ilges, 5th Infantry, reported having arrested 
one hundred and eighty-five hostiles, forty-three of them being full 
grown warriors, in the Yanktonnais camp at Red Water, Montana ; 
fifteen horses and seven guns were taken from the prisoners. 

April 11th, one hundred and thirty-five hostiles, forty-five of them 
men, surrendered with their arms and ponies, to Major Brotherton, 7th 
Infantry, commanding Fort Buford, Dakota. 

April 18th, thirty-two lodges of hostile Sioux, numbering forty-seven 
men, thirty-nine women, twenty-five boys and forty-five girls, with fifty- 
seven ponies, sixteen guns and three revolvers, surrendered to Lieutenant 
Colonel Whistler, 5th Infantry, commanding Fort Keogh, Montana. 

May 24th, eight lodges of hostiles, numbering about fifty persons, 
twelve of them men, surrendered to the commanding officer at Camp 
Poplar River, Montana. 

May 26th, thirty-two hostile Indians surrendered to the commanding 
officer at Fort Buford, Dakota. 

July 20th, Sitting Bull, with the last of his followers, comprising 
forty-five men, sixty seven women and seventy-three children, surren- 
dered to the commanding officer at Fort Buford, Dakota. 

On July 22d, there were turned over to the Indian agent at Standing 
Rock Agency, (Mr. J. A. Stephan,) two thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-nine Indian prisoners, with five hundred and forty-nine ponies 
and mules. 

In July, "Nana," with fifteen warriors, the remnant of "Victoria's" 
band, re-entered New Mexico, and reinforced by about twenty-five 
Mescaleros, whirled through the territory, plundering and killing a num- 
ber of people. On the 17th of July, at Alamo Canon, New Mexico, a 
small party of these Indians ambushed chief packer Burgess and one 
man, belonging to a detachment commanded by Lieutenant Guilfoyle, 
9th Cavalry, wounded Burgess and captured three mules. On July 19th, 
Lieutenant Guilfoyle with his detachment of the 9th Cavalry and some 
Indian scouts, following a trail westward of Canon del Perro, New 
Mexico, had a skirmish with some of the hostiles near the Arena 
Blanca, where they had just killed two Mexicans and a woman; the 
party numbered about thirteen warriors, and succeeded in making their 
escape. On July 25th, Lieutenant Guilfoyle again struck the hostiles 
encamped in the San Andreas Mountains, New Mexico, captured two 



115 



horses, twelve mules, many blankets and all the Indians' provisions ; two 
of the hostiles were shot and believed to be killed, the others escaped, 
crossing the Rio Grande, six miles below San Jose, killing two. miners 
and a Mexican in the flight. 

July 30th, four Mexicans were reported killed by the hostiles in the 
foot hills of the San Mateo Mountains. August 1st, a party of thirty-six 
citizens, commanded by a Mr. Mitchell, whilst at dinner in the Red Canon 
of the San Mateo Mountains, were surprised and defeated by the hostiles, 
losing one man killed and seven wounded, besides all their riding 
animals, thirty-eight in number ; the Lidians escaped. On August 3d, 
Lieutenant Guilfoyle's detachment again struck this band at Monica 
Springs, New Mexico, wounded two Indians and captured eleven head 
of stock, some saddles, blankets, etc. This band numbered about twenty 
or thirty warriors, led by Nana, and they had killed another Mexican, in 
escaping from Red Canon. At La Savoya, New Mexico, on August 11th, 
Lieutenant Guilfoyle found that two Mexicans had been killed, and two 
women carried off by the hostiles. 

August 12th, Captain Parker, with a detachment of nineteen men of 
the 9th Cavalry, struck Nana's band, twenty-five miles west of Sabinal, 
New Mexico, lost one soldier killed, three wounded and one missing, but 
reported an equal loss inflicted upon the hostiles who then drew off ; 
Captain Parker's small detachment, encumbered by their wounded, were 
unable to pursue. 

v August 16th, Lieutenant Valois, with Troop " I," 9th Cavalry, had a 
severe fight with a band of about fifty Indians, near Cuchillo Negro, New 
Mexico ; Lieutenant Burnett, 9th Cavalry, was wounded twice, two 
enlisted men and six horses were killed ; the hostiles lost several killed. 
The same day Lieutenant Taylor, with a detachment of the 9th Cavalry, 
also had a fight with the hostiles, captured some horses and recovered 
some stolen property, losing, himself, a few horses killed ; the hostiles 
were pursued toward the Black Range. 

August 18th, Lieutenant G. W. Smith, 9th Cavalry, with a detach- 
ment of twenty men, struck the hostiles about fifteen miles from McEver's 
ranch, New Mexico. The Indians were defeated, after a very severe 
fight in which Lieutenant Smith and four of his men were killed ; a party 
of citizens, under command of George Daly, joined Lieutenant Smith in 
the fight and Daly was killed. 

Altogether, eight troops of cavalry, eight companies of infantry and 
two Indian scouts were in the field, personally commanded by Colonel E. 
Hatch, 9th Cavalry, in pursuit of these Indians, and while no decisive 
engagement took place, the hostiles were persistently driven from one 
point to another, until they fled across the Mexican border, where, under 
positive orders from the Government, the chase was abandoned. 



116 



In the Department of Texas, the following murders were also specially 
reported : 

By the commanding officer, Fort Davis, Texas, January 8th, 1881; 
in Quitman Canon, Texas, the stage driver and a passenger, named 
James Kelso, killed by unknown parties supposed to be Indians. 

By the commanding officer, Fort Clark, Texas; Allen Reiss and 
Mrs. McLauren, killed by Indians on the Rio Frio, Texas, about April 
24, 1881. 

By the commanding officer, Fort Davis, Texas; two railroad employes, 
named Bell and Smith, were killed by unknown parties, at a water hole 
between Quitman and Eagle Springs, Texas, about July 8, 1881. 



1882. 



April 23d, a detachment, consisting of six men and six Indian scouts, 
commanded by Lieutenant McDonald, 4th Cavalry, was attacked by a 
large band of Chiricahua Apaches, about twenty miles south of Stein's 
Pass, Arizona, and four of the scouts were killed. One of the scouts 
made his escape with the news, and Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Forsyth, 
with Troops « 0," " F," « G," " H," and " M," 4th Cavalry, proceeded 
at a gallop for sixteen miles to the relief of the rest of Lieutenant 
McDonald's party, who were found still defending themselves. The 
hostiles fled on the approach of this column, were pursued and overtaken 
in a strongly intrenched position in Horse Shoe Canon, where the com- 
mand dismounted and promptly attacked them among rocky ridges vary- 
ing from four hundred to sixteen hundred feet high. The Indians were 
driven from rock to rock, among the mountains, until they dispersed in 
every direction and further immediate pursuit became impracticable ; 
thirteen Indians were killed, a number wounded and a quantity of their 
animals captured. 

On April 28th, Captain Tupper, with Troops " G " and " M," 6th 
Cavalry, and a company of Indian scouts, all belonging to the Depart- 
ment of Arizona, struck these Indians about twenty-five miles south of 
Cloverdale, surprised and attacked their camp, killed six of the hostiles 
and captured seventy-two head of stock. 

After Forsyth's fight in Horse Shoe Canon, he followed upon the 
trail and, joining forces with Captain Tupper after the latter had also 
attacked the hostiles, continued the pursuit into old Mexico. About ten 
miles from the scene of Tupper's fight, a squaw was found who stated 
that the Indians had lost thirteen killed in the fight with Forsyth, and 
six more in Tupper's attack. On April 30th Forsyth, met a column of 
Mexican troops, commanded by Colonel Garcia, who declined to allow 
further pursuit upon Mexican soil, and stated that his own troops had 
just destroyed the band Forsyth had chased into Mexico. Forsyth 
accompanied Garcia to the scene of the fight, which had lasted five hours, 
during which time the Mexicans had lost two officers and nineteen men 
killed, and three officers and ten men wounded ; seventy-eight Indians 
were killed and thirty-three women and children were captured. The 
total thus known to be killed in the fights of Forsyth, Tupper and Garcia, 
was ninety-eight ; about thirty Indians had also been wounded who es- 



118 



caped, and two hundred and five horses and mules were killed or cap- 
tured, before the hostiles entered Mexico. 

April 29th, Lieutenant Morgan, 3d Cavalry, with a detachment of six 
men of Troop " K," 3d Cavalry, was sent from Fort Washakie, Wyoming, 
to arrest " Ute Jack," a chief of the White River Utes. Armed with a 
knife, " Ute Jack " resisted arrest and attempted to escape, when he 
was wounded in the arm by a shot from the guard. He then took refuge 
in an Indian teepee, where he obtained a carbine and succeeded in 
killing the sergeant of the detachment. Major Mason, 3d Cavalry, 
arrived on the spot and further measures were taken resulting in the 
capture and death of the Indian. 

June 23d, a party of hostile Apaches attempted to take refuge upon 
the Mescalero Agency at Fort Stanton, New Mexico. The agent, Mr. 
Llewellyn, assisted by some of the employes and Indian police, attempted 
to arrest the hostiles, when a fight occurred in which three of the hostiles 
were killed and Mr. Llewellyn wounded ; the rest of the band, about 
seven or eight in number, escaped and fled from the reservation, pursued 
by a small detachment of troops and Indian scouts from Fort Stanton. 



CONCLUS ION, 



In connection with the operations of the Army, within the Military- 
Division of the Missouri, many important changes have taken place dur- 
ing the fifteen years embraced by the foregoing narrative; much of the 
country which, at the beginning of that period, was monopolized by the 
buffalo and the Indian, has now been opened to the settler, to the rail- 
road and to civilization. With a loss to the troops of more than a 
thousand officers and men killed and wounded, and partly as the result 
of more than four hundred skirmishes, combats and battles, — not includ- 
ing many pursuits and surrenders of Indians, when no actual fighting 
occurred, — the majority of the wasteful and hostile occupants of millions 
of acres of valuable agricultural, pasture and mineral lands, have been 
forced upon reservations under the supervision of the Government; some 
have been gradually taught a few of the simpler useful industries, 
Indian children have been placed in schools, under instruction in a bet- 
ter life than the vagabond existence to which they were born, and the 
vast section over which the wild and irresponsible tribes once wandered, 
redeemed from idle waste to become a home for millions of progressive 
people. 

Following behind the advancing troops who protected the hardy 
pioneer engaged in breaking the soil for his homestead, came the Kansas 
and Union Pacific railways, racing through Kansas and Nebraska, to 
gain " the hundreth meridian." Guarded by the soldiers, the surveying 
and construction parties completed the main lines of those roads during 
the earlier years covered by this narrative, and later their branches and 
connections have extended into many fertile valleys which now support 
not only a thick local population, but supply, also, material for the bread 
of this Nation and the old world. Subsequently the Atchison, Topeka 
and Santa Fe railway opened to the stock raisers, the rich cattle ranges 
of the Arkansas Valley, and carried into the drowsy regions of New 
Mexico, the implements of a new era. Across Dakota and Montana, to- 
day, the working parties of the Northern Pacific, escorted by the troops, 
are rapidly adding another complete trans-continental highway, and over 
all of the foregoing roads, are pouring thousands of cars loaded with 
cattle, to furnish eastern markets with iheir daily supply of beef. With 
its narrow iron threadways, the Denver and Rio Grande has seamed the 
almost vertical faces of mountain cliffs, scaled their lofty summits and 



120 

made available the wealth of Utah and Colorado. Through the State of 
Texas, the Southern Pacific, the Texas Pacific, and the International and 
Great Northern, have opened complete routes to the Pacific and into Old 
Mexico, whilst all over the Division, numerous minor roads and branches 
are constantly penetrating what were, until recently, mysterious and 
almost unknown regions. 

As the railroads overtook the successive lines of isolated frontier 
posts, and settlements spread out over country no longer requiring mili- 
tary protection, the army vacated its temporary shelters and marched on 
into remote regions beyond, there to repeat and continue its pioneer 
work. In rear of the advancing line of troops, the primitive " dug-outs " 
and cabins of the frontiersmen, were steadily replaced by the tasteful 
houses, thrifty farms, neat villages and busy towns of a people who 
knew how best to employ the vast resources of the great West. The 
civilization from the Atlantic is now reaching out toward that rapidly 
approaching it from the direction of the Pacific, the long intervening 
strip of territory, extending from the British Possessions to Old Mexico, 
yearly growing narrower; finally the dividing lines will entirely disap- 
pear and the mingling settlements absorb the remnants of the once pow- 
erful Indian nations who, fifteen years ago, vainly attempted to forbid 
the destined progress of the age. 



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